The other realms
by Hezza62
Summary: Sequel to 'The blood of the ancients' Stars: Angel, Spike and Lawson as the protectors, Cordy as the Seer and Erica as the fledgling GuardianSlayer, Guest stars: Buffy, Oz, Season 7 characters, and Lindsey McDonald. Summary of first story in first chapter
1. Is this a dream?

The other realms

Sequel to: The blood of the ancients

**Summary so far…**

Angel, Spike and a vampire that Angel sired, Sam Lawson, were chosen as the three vampires with souls to protect a would-be Slayer, who was instead chosen to become a Guardian for all of the dimensions and realities. Her name is Erica Winters. She was made into a Vessel of Power, and infused with the blood of the ancient beings in order to be powerful enough to fulfil her role. She is still growing into her abilities, with her vampire protectors to teach her how to survive, and with Cordelia Chase being resurrected as an eighteen year old with no memories of her time in LA, in order to serve as Seer and a guide to Erica.

What Erica doesn't know is that one day, when the Powers that Be decide she is ready, she will be tested. One of the tests includes her former protectors losing their souls and being trapped with her in some kind of battleground in another dimension. If she survives, she has earned the right to be the Guardian.

Erica has started slaying vampires and helping fight demons, even though her slayer strength has only just begun to emerge. Cordelia receives visions to tell her how Erica can learn to use her power, which includes healing wounds, creating portals to other dimensions and monitoring those dimensions with a trick that uses water and a mirror to make a reflection into the other realm. Soon she will learn how to repair the pathways between dimensions, and the dimensional walls themselves, keeping the realities separated and balanced, as they should be. She will also gain some ability to regulate who travels the dimensions.

Erica made a mistake the first time she created a portal, and it (long story short) created another version of their dimension, five years before. She met Lindsey McDonald, and healed him the night he lost his hand. Lindsey rescued her from Wolfram and Hart, but betrayed her by taking some of her energy, her power, in a ritual when they slept together, and he didn't tell her until after she found out that he was stronger.

He had made himself into her Guardian with the ritual of trust. He had become another protector, but after he rescued her from Wolfram and Hart a second time (she had run away from him) she was sent back to her own reality by the Oracles and told that one day when she was strong enough she would have to erase the dimension that she'd created, which included the people living in it, because they had no right to exist.

Since then Eve, Angel's former employee, kidnapped Cordelia and Erica with the help of some mercenaries. She tortured them in revenge for what happened to the Lindsey she knew. The vampires rescued them and Eve was tracked down later. Erica opened a portal to the copycat dimension and sent Eve through to a Lindsey who didn't love her.

That night Spike let Erica know how he felt about her.

Angel and Buffy are together (she is only a guest star in the fic), as are Cordelia and Lawson.

Oz the werewolf is also living in LA in order to assist the 'demon squad' division of the police, to counsel other werewolves, and Nina (Angel's ex) has turned feral.

888

Chapter 1: Is this a dream?

Erica wasn't alone. She knew where she was, but not why she was there. Why could he keep finding her here? This was her dream-space, her private realm. It always felt so real, but it when she woke up, the certainty faded until she couldn't be sure.

She sat on the wooden floor with her legs crossed as though she were meditating. She was wearing a white, short-sleeved t-shirt and her old grey drawstring training pants. Her hair was tied up behind her. Her eyes were closed, but still; she knew exactly where he was.

"We have to talk," Lindsey said to her from somewhere behind her left shoulder.

Erica sighed and slowly opened her eyes. She was in a training dojo with blue rubber safety mats on the floor. Like before it was dark outside save for a light somewhere that rendered the inside of the building visible in grey, muted light. She was facing toward the wall of windows, which looked out onto a yellow brick wall. Somewhere above the roof was the light, illuminating the wall. She stood up.

"You left so quickly last time," Lindsey continued. "But you said the first time that you'd forgiven me. Have I done something since then to make you angry?"

"It would be easier on me if I could forget you, because you're not a part of my world." Erica said. "But still, you seek me out in my dreams. This is the third time you've done it, and I'm starting to believe that it's really you and not a figment of my imagination."

"Doesn't this feel real?" Lindsey put his hand on her shoulder.

"Dammit Lindsey," Erica said, shrugging away, "you can't keep doing this."

"Is that why you sent her? To distract me?" Lindsey asked a little coldly, "So that I'd keep away from you?"

This time Erica turned around and let him see the left side of her face. "So that she'd be kept away from us," she answered. "You were just the bait to get her there, but that didn't mean I wanted her to get her 'happily ever after' with you."

"Did she do this?" Lindsey said sharply with a frown. He reached out with his right hand to touch her face.

She stepped back. "Lindsey, please. I do forgive you but I can't be with you. Please, stop making this harder on me."

"Don't change the subject," Lindsey said. "Why did she do this?"

"She didn't tell you?" Erica asked.

"She's too busy trying to get me to pay attention to her," Lindsey said, with his hands back down at his sides.

"The reason she was so desperate to see you is because in my reality you were shot several months ago by someone who was working with Angel. You two were apparently in love at the time and Eve got really upset and angry about your death, enough to hurt me and Cordelia for it to get back at Angel."

"What exactly did she do?"

"I'm not telling you." Erica said, and went on before Lindsey could start arguing. "You're in a position to take revenge for it and that's not what I want. I didn't send her to you just so you could do what I couldn't. The only suffering I want her to go through is what she's already feeling. She found you again but you rejected her. That's enough for me, as long as she can't hurt us anymore." She looked away for a moment, and then turned her face back toward his. "Be careful with her though, because she's very manipulative, and has a habit of gaining friends in powerful places."

"So that's it? You dump her here and tell me to leave you alone, while I'm expected to keep her out of trouble."

"Well, yeah; if you want to put it that way. But don't forget that you're the one that asked for this, Lindsey. You made yourself my protector, remember? You really want to protect me? I need to be protected from her and her scheming. When I'm ready for her I'll bring her back where she belongs, and we'll work something out."

Lindsey kept looking at her expectantly.

"I'm not angry with you," Erica continued, "and I'm… I don't want to hurt you, but this dream-sharing has to stop. At the very least you're distracting me, and I've still got a lot to learn before I'm even supposed to make a trip back to your reality. And anyway, seeing each other just upsets us both."

"You want time-out from the both of us?" Lindsey clarified.

"Yes... please."


	2. Just between us

**Chapter 2**: Just between us

It was a sunny California morning, and Erica was eating breakfast in the dining room at the apartment that she, Lawson and Cordelia shared. She was already dressed in jeans and a dark-blue, long-sleeved top.

"Here," Cordelia said, putting some books on the dining room table. She wore brown corduroy pants and a pale yellow spaghetti strap top with a light brown and white striped shirt over the top.

"What are these," Erica asked past a mouthful of toast.

"Watcher's diaries; Giles sent them for you." Cordelia answered. "It's kind of important that you read them."

"Huh?" Erica said. "Why?"

"Can't tell you," Cordelia replied, and left the room.

Erica paused in mid-chew with her forehead creased in confusion. She raised her eyebrows and shook her head. Let her be weird if she wanted to be. With one hand holding the toast, she used the other hand to pull the top book forward off the pile and opened it. She groaned when she saw the untidy scrawl that she was going to have to decipher.

Cordelia came back into the room, already dressed to go into the office. "You don't really have time to look at those right now, and you should hurry up with your breakfast if you're going to catch a ride with me and Lawson." She said, pulling back her hair. She glanced at Erica's face and let her hands drop to her sides. "You haven't been sleeping well lately have you?"

"Not really," Erica answered, pushing her plate of crusts away from her.

"Is it Eve? You only got rid of her last week, maybe you need time to deal."

"What?" Erica asked, getting up with her plate to take it into the kitchen. "With the fact that I got rid of her? No, I'm happy I did that. I got the whole, 'I'm proud of you' talk with Angel for not taking out my rage on her, and from Lawson."

"And I mentioned that I'm really happy you got the reflection thing working, didn't I?"

"Yeah, everyone's so happy that I'm making progress and not dwelling on the past. I notice no one's really asking you if you're okay with it; I mean you got tortured too."

"Yeah, but you fixed me up, so I don't have to live with it, and you do," Cordelia said.

Erica touched the scar on her cheek. It was cross-shaped, and she had identical scars running up and down her arms. She had drowned and had her leg broken too, but she was physically fine now. Cordelia had been branded and crucified, but Erica had healed her once Spike had resuscitated her and brought her back to the others. She'd even staked two more vampires since and had been the one beating information out of the informant to find out where Eve was staying. She had taken back control of her life by not letting her ordeal bring her down.

"That's not what's bothering me," Erica said, "Not really."

"Well, tell me," Cordelia said, leaning against the back of one of the chairs while Erica stood in the kitchen with the bench separating them.

"I've been having these dreams, "Erica said.

"Tell me," Cordelia said again.

"I'm powerful already in the dream, and it feels like that's the way I'm supposed to be, or how I will be, eventually. I'm in some kind of training room. If I work hard in the dream then I wake up tired. And… Lindsey is there sometimes too, like he's sharing the dream with me. Last night he asked why I sent Eve to him. He told me she got really depressed when he didn't even know who she was. He thinks I was trying to send him a message by sending someone who's supposed to be his girlfriend."

"What kind of message?"

"That I'm still angry with him, and that I don't care who he's with?"

"Why were you angry? I thought you said he helped you," Cordelia pointed out.

"Cordy, can this stay between us?" Erica said. She glanced at the door, but Lawson wasn't back yet.

"Sure," Cordelia said, "you can trust me."

"I … slept with Lindsey, after he rescued me from Wolfram and Hart," Erica sighed and kept going, "and because I was trusting him so much he was able to do some kind of ritual on me. He 'borrowed' Slayer energy; 'said he'd become my protector or something. The ritual didn't hurt me, and it helped him save my life, but he didn't bother mentioning it to me until after he'd done it. I was so angry with him that I ran off, got captured, and he had to join up with the Angel Investigations in that dimension to save me."

"How long were you in that dimension?" Cordelia asked, "Because it seems like you were gone for more than a few hours."

"Actually I was there for a few days," Erica answered. "Maybe time works differently between realms, but you're the one who's supposed to tell _me_ these things."

"Well, I haven't had a vision about you for a little while, but maybe I can offer you some insight on these dreams."

"Spill it," Erica said eagerly.

"You're on your way to being a Slayer, as well as a Guardian, but what I learnt from my time with Buffy is that Slayers can have dreams about the future. Prophetic dreams. Maybe you're going to see Lindsey again when you're stronger and he's going to ask you about Eve."

Erica made a doubtful face. "That didn't seem like it, like something that was _going_ to happen; it felt more like something that _was_ happening. Anyway, we just talked, and I thought you should only get visions about real important stuff."

"All right, here's a crazier theory," Cordelia said. "He's your protector, right? Well, just as the PTB gave you a means of monitoring the realities with that mirror trick, maybe they gave him a means of keeping in contact with you. Perhaps you really are talking to him. I could start researching stuff like that if you want."

"No, keep at it with the cases," Erica said.

"You know how you could find out?" Cordelia offered, "Ask him to do something the next day and watch him through the mirror when you wake up."

Erica thought about it. "I told him that I didn't want to be distracted by him anymore, and asked him to leave me alone until I come back for Eve. If he really is in my dreams or in a shared dream, and he does what I ask then I won't get the chance to ask him anything else." She still looked a little sad and drawn.

"You're going to bring Eve back?" Cordelia asked.

Erica winced, as if in pain, but it wasn't because of Eve someday returning. "She doesn't belong in that world, and I can't stoop to murder; not of humans. When I erase the reality I'll erase the people in it. I can barely think of doing it at all, let alone to someone who _is_ supposed to exist."

Cordelia took a step to one side so she could sit down in a chair. "That's what's been bothering you, isn't it?"

Erica nodded. "That reality exists because of a mistake, an emergency that was my fault. That means it's my fault that a whole world of people who are living out some twisted mimicry of our reality will one day be destroyed. I'll be their Armageddon, and yeah, that bothers the hell out of me. Lindsey's visits are making it worse, because he's confronting me again and again and I can't tell him that I'm going to kill him, can I?"

Erica was getting a little distressed, and she gripped the edge of the bench. She'd been talking quickly, and when she'd gotten to the part about Lindsey she hadn't taken another breath until she'd finished. Cordelia gave her a sympathetic look, but evidently had no idea what to say to her.

They were startled when a key scratched in the lock and Lawson opened the front door. "You guys ready to go?" he asked.

The girls were silent for an instant. "Just let me brush my teeth," Erica said quickly as she rushed off to the bathroom.

Lawson stopped for a second and looked at Cordy. "Did I miss something?" he asked.

"Just girl talk." Cordelia answered, giving him a little smile as though it were no big deal.

888

The three of them walked into the office and Spike and Angel became silent, as though they didn't want their conversation shared.

"She got the Diaries," Cordelia announced.

"Yeah," Erica said, glancing back at Cordelia before looking at Angel, "as well as the cryptic message that she can't tell me why I have to read them. Does that extend to the rest of you too?"

Angel nodded at her.

"Well maybe I could try…" Spike said, and took a few steps toward Erica. "We're not allowed to tell you that you can't always trust us_. The three of us are going to lose our souls and try to kill you one day, but if you survive the Tests then you can be the Guardian."_

"Wait, wait, wait!" Erica said, with her hands up for emphasis. "The last thing I heard you say was that I can't always trust you, and then it was gibberish. You're trying to tell me that you physically can't tell me what's going on? None of you?"

The others gave her quiet stares.

Erica sighed. "So I guess I have to pick up clues from the Watcher's Diaries. Who's stopping you from telling me?"

"The Powers that Be," Cordelia answered.

Erica raised her eyebrows. "So the same beings that are supposed to guide us are holding back information from me? That's just great (!)"

The others didn't seem to know what to tell her. She went to sit down on one of the couches. "You got anything you want me to do today?" she asked Angel a little more calmly.

"Check the mirror again, and see if you can see anything today," Angel instructed.

"Sure," Erica said without much enthusiasm. She pulled her bag off of her shoulder and pulled out a small hand mirror. She had a little bottle of water too and she wet the surface of the mirror. She didn't need the lighter anymore, but now she always had a bottle of water with her instead. A bottle full of water wasn't enough to make a portal, but it was enough to See with.

She laid the mirror down on the couch beside her and began to focus, but it was difficult to concentrate when her mind wanted to go back to the fact that she couldn't always trust the people that were supposed to safeguard her life. She couldn't trust the Powers that Be, either, if they were going to have something to do with it. How could she trust the information in Cordelia's visions then? If they were messages from the PTB then what might they lie about or decide to keep from her?

Erica physically shook her head and took a deep breath. For now at least, she knew that the others wanted to help her. She'd just have to hold onto that and ignore the rest, otherwise she'd never get anything done. Her first priority was to help people, and she needed to practice her skills if she wanted to succeed.

She pulled in all of her feelings and pushed them back to the bottom of her mind. She let herself slip into a sense of calm and put her hand over the mirror so that her fingertips hovered about an inch from the surface. Her mind was as blank and open as she could make it, and she waited, hoping that an image would come to her.

She was supposed to be seeing the image of people or places in the other realms, or of the gateways between them. But having never seen them, she had nothing specific to look for. She knew that she would have to be patient and let the image come to her. She just had to stay open and wait for it.

Cordelia had explained it once, saying that even when the gateways weren't activated, they existed, sometimes in separate parts, waiting for a ritual to draw them together, sometimes just floating in the wrong part of the space between realms. It kept the beings from those realities safer from outside meddling if the portals weren't always in place.

If Erica didn't know where she wanted the image from, then she had to wait until at least a tiny part of one of the gateways was between her and another realm, so that it acted as a sort of satellite or antenna for the image. If she'd known where she wanted the image from, she could will the gateway pieces to move where she wanted, but because she was trying to look somewhere new then she had to wait.

888

"So how is she lately?" Angel asked Cordelia and Lawson in his office. Spike was standing just inside the doorway, watching Erica through the window as she stared into the mirror in her lap.

Cordelia hesitated. "She's been … better lately. Not so quiet anymore. She's definitely feeling better now that she can move around. She's been at the gym almost every day since she got rid of the cast."

"I took her out last night for a bit of a patrol," Spike added, still watching her. He glanced back when Angel didn't say anything. "What? You're not going to lecture me about putting her in danger, then?"

"No," Angel said, giving a little shake of his head. "She'll never get stronger if we don't test her. We shouldn't get reckless, but we can't overprotect her either. How did she cope with it?" he asked.

"All right, I guess," Spike said with a little shrug, turning back toward the group and leaning against the closed door. "She's no slayer, yet, but for a human she's not so bad at protecting herself. Of course, last night, the worst we had was some crazy homeless guy run at us with a broken bottle."

"Did you hurt him?" Lawson asked.

"No, no. 'Tell the truth, I wasn't even going to warn her until the last second, but she heard him and kicked him off his feet. As I said, she's getting better. I dunno how much he must have outweighed her by but when he got up she was able to shove him back into the wall, so she is definitely showing improvement strength-wise. I knocked him over and the fight went out of the old fella so we left him alone."

Angel nodded his head. "We should start testing her ourselves then. We'll give her some sparring practice. If she knows our limits then … when the time comes she'll know how to beat us."

Lawson sighed. "This sucks, not being able to tell her."

"No argument there," Spike agreed with him. "I mean, what the hell are the powers going to do if we kill her? They're supposed to depend on her to do her job, aren't they?"

"We're doing the best we can," Cordelia said. "Her job is going to be hard. Sometimes regulating demon dimensions means fighting them back. If she can't pass the tests then she would probably end up getting killed anyway, and that means the gateways would be left defenceless against other inter-dimensional travellers. There's as lot of power in those portals, potentially destructive power. If the Higher Powers are going to hand over control, then she has to be ready for it."

"Yeah, well she shouldn't be attacked by people she trusts." Spike argued.

Angel nodded, but said, "We've seen what happens if she wins. And that was just her fighting as a mortal, so I got the impression that she'll be capable of more."

"I know she is," Lawson said. "You didn't see what happened when she saved me. It was… you're right. All we've got to focus on right now is getting her there. If she wins, she'll be okay. She'll be able to handle herself."

"That doesn't mean we have to like it," Spike said.

888


	3. Welcome to my place

**AN: Do you remember Skip, the demon (Season 3 & 4)? In his realm/fortress, things happened according to 'his will', (like a cage made out of fire and not being able to hear the guy's screaming) and that's the principle I'm using for the realm in this chapter. **

**Chapter 3**: Welcome to my place

They were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"I found something," Erica told them when Spike opened the door. She didn't wait for a response and turned around to walk back towards the couches where she had left the mirror. "Take a look," she said.

Angel took the first look and saw an empty, dimly lit room with a large-tiled floor and a blank grey wall. "Did you see anyone there?" he asked.

Silently Erica held out her hand above the mirror and made the image swivel around. The room had no doors and no windows, and no visible light source. Just the four blank walls, the ceiling and the floor. The room looked a little larger than the foyer at Angel Investigations.

"I think I've been there before." Erica said.

"How?" Angel said. "I thought we'd agreed that you weren't going to open any more portals without us."

"I didn't," Erica replied. "I think I've been seeing this place in my dreams. It's a training room. I want to go back to be sure, but it … _feels_ familiar."

"Doesn't look dangerous," Spike said, leaning past Angel's shoulder to get a look.

"All right," Angel said, and glanced at Erica, "Do you want to go?" he asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

Angel nodded and went to the weapons cabinet. Lawson walked away to get her a bucket of water.

Angel took out his favoured sword and tossed an axe to Spike. He grabbed a lighter, short sword for Erica. "We'll check it out. Cordelia, stay at the office with Lawson in case we get any clients."

Erica knelt by the bucket and drew up the portal. When she was finished Angel handed her the sword and went through first. Erica went next and kept the portal open from the other end while Spike followed her through. Thanks to Erica's practice, they all landed smoothly.

As Erica released the portal and turned around the room brightened. The two vampires held their weapons ready, glancing around for signs of activity. "You think someone knows we're here?" Spike asked.

"I don't think so," Erica said, "the room is just getting ready for us."

"What are you talking about?" Angel asked.

"I told you. I've been here before; this is _my_ training room, _my_ realm. It feels like it was meant for me, and that's why I've been able to see it when I'm asleep."

"So what do you do in an empty room?" Spike asked. He sounded as though he didn't believe her explanation.

Erica smiled. "Anything I want." She glanced at the ceiling and the air shifted. A blue boxing bag formed out of nothing and hung suspended from a chain. She looked at the far wall and a doorway opened in the wall. "Come on," she said. She led them to the indoor pool. "I think the reason that I've been learning the fighting stuff so quickly is because most nights I come here and practice," she explained. "At first I thought it was just a dream, but in the mornings I can feel that I've been using my muscles, even though it never actually hurts. This place was meant for the Guardian; it _belongs_ to me. My best theory is that it's an extension of the Midrealm, which is going to be my domain someday anyway."

"Then why are we here?" Angel asked. He'd lowered his sword so that it was at rest by his side.

"I brought you here," Erica replied, as though it was obvious. She led them through a side door into a weights room. "I don't know if it applies when I'm really, physically here, but at night everything's only as heavy as I want it, even gravity. I can be as strong or fast as I want to be here."

Spike looked at one of the stations. "Everything's in kilograms," he observed.

"Well I grew up with the metric system, ok?" Erica said. She made another door that led back to the large training space. "Lately I've been experimenting with the atmosphere. I can make sections of air harder than others, and make them move. I call them shadow fighters."

"You can make opponents?" Spike asked.

Erica nodded. "They're not smart, but I can vary their strength and speed and give them some random combinations of moves to use. They hold together for about half an hour unless I stop to reform them."

"Have they ever been able to hurt you?" Angel asked.

"No," Erica answered. She paused, then admitted: "I mean, once I got my arm broken when I was practicing with a staff, but it only hurt for a second and was healed again as soon as I stopped to think about it. If I want them to stop fighting then they stop fighting." She shrugged. "They're mine, and they do whatever I want them to do. I could probably get them to tap dance if I knew how to tap dance."

"Show me," Angel said.

"What do you want it to do?" Erica asked.

"Just stand there," Angel replied.

Erica turned to stare at a blank space on the floor. She didn't use any gestures or any word or any element to help her do it; she just looked at the space and willed it to be solid. This was _her_ realm, and even the air bent to her will here. She gave it some shading and suddenly they could see a man-shaped figure in front of them. The body had shape, but no features; just a dark grey shell.

"You know, you were asleep all the other times you were here," Spike pointed out while Angel started circling the shadow fighter. "How do you know that you can't actually get hurt here while you're awake?"

"Good question," Erica acknowledged. She glanced down at her short sword for a second before using it to put a small cut on the back of her left arm.

"What are you doing?" Spike asked as the cut disappeared.

"Wow," Erica said, then looked back at him. "Well you were right; it's important to know if I can really be hurt here, and," she hesitated, "it's probably important to know if my 'guests' can be hurt here too."

Spike took the hint and used the tip of the axe to give himself a scratch on the back of his hand. It didn't heal at first and Erica seemed to be deliberately looking away. "I guess it doesn't work that way," he said.

"Wait a second," Erica said, "I'm trying to make it so that people I bring here can do it for themselves. Try it again now; just think about the injury."

Spike glanced back at the cut and it was gone. "Nice," he said with a grin. "It's a wonder you ever wake up from this place."

Erica hesitated for the briefest of seconds. Even in her realm, things had become complicated whenever Lindsey had shown up. "Well, I can't sleep forever, can I?" she replied. They both looked at Angel, who seemed to be trying to put his hand through the figure.

"Do they feel anything?" he asked.

"Uh, they're made out of air. Unless there's some weird air demon I don't know about, you can't hurt air. Even if they were capable of feeling things it would be my will that they don't, and, as I love pointing out, whatever I want happens here. You want it to move?"

"Sure," Angel replied, taking a few steps back.

Erica bit her bottom lip and stared at the shadow fighter, giving it instructions. It floated up above the floor and took a bow. It then turned upside-down and started walking on the ceiling toward the other end of the room.

"You think you could make it so that we can tell them what to do?" Spike asked.

Erica shrugged. "I think I could, but I'm not going to," the others gave her a look. "I'm not being selfish; I'm trying to be smart." Having no other instructions, the shadow fighter kept walking back and forth above their heads. Erica glanced at it and continued, "This is supposed to be some kind of Guardian's Sanctuary, and I've got a gut feeling that I shouldn't give up too much control to other people here. What if I bring someone I can't trust here and they turn on me?" She gave them a meaningful look, referring to Spike's words earlier. "I don't want someone with harm in mind to have power over me in a place that's supposed to be safe for me."

"You're right," Angel told her. "It's good that you're being careful like that." He looked back up at the shadow fighter again. "Could you bring it down again for us?"

Erica nodded and said, "Come down," to the shadow fighter. It stopped in mid-walk, flipped right way up and dropped to the ground, where it started its walk again, on its way back toward the three of them. "Stop," she told it, and it stood motionless before them.

Angel walked up to it and tried to hit it with the butt of his sword but the thing blocked the attack with its arms and stepped out of range. Angel took a quick step back and raised his sword. "I thought they only did what you told them to do," he said, keeping his eyes on the SF.

"They do," Erica said. She gave a short sigh and looked away for a second. "Uh, how can I explain this. I can't think of everything, right? I might not always remember to give each one I make all the right instructions. It's like creating a computer program. If you don't tell the program what to do and get all the conditions right then it can make any mistake that you've left possible. One time I might do all the right things in making it act like a certain demon, but I might forget to specify that it's not allowed to attack me when I'm unconscious or something like that.

"What I've done with these things is kind of made a template, so that every time I make one it appears like this, and they all have the same basic rules, which I then add to, depending on what I want from it, like what demon I want it to represent. So far, the rules are that they can't kill me. They stand still unless I give an instruction, and they're affected by normal gravity unless I make it otherwise."

She was using her fingers to count off the list. "They don't go through solid objects, they keep the form I give them, they disperse if I 'kill' them, and they also stay visible at all times. Last time I used them I added the part about reacting to attacks. There's no demon I've read about that won't defend itself, and a training partner that just stands there won't help me learn. However, though this one will automatically try to block and dodge, it won't counter-attack because I haven't given it any moves to use."

Angel relaxed a little. The SF was still standing where it had dodged to, with its arms up a little, but it was motionless again. "Will they protect you?" he asked.

"'Never had anyone here that I was afraid of, but yeah; as long as I say so. Again, I'd have to specify things like whether the fighter would also protect itself or put itself at risk to keep me safe. As I said, there's a lot to think about. Plus, I'd have to reform them once they start to dissipate, but that's not so hard. As long as I catch it before they're completely gone then they keep the same orders." She paused and gave a thoughtful nod to herself. "That's a good idea though; maybe I should make up a guard template, and then this place really would be more like a sanctuary."

"How many have you had at one time?" Spike asked.

"Two for fighting, so far, but I had five up at once when I was figuring out what I could do with them." She paused, glancing around her at the room. "I was using this place a lot while my leg was healing, but I didn't actually realise that it was real until this morning. I mean, who would, except Cordy, who Sees things? Anyway, it's like I could get things ready; make all the mistakes I needed to in my dreams where I can't really be hurt, and it got this place ready for my first real visit. I think some stuff was here from the start, like the gravity and the breathable air, because a sanctuary would logically have life support, but the fact that it looks like a training hall, a real one that I used to go to, makes it likely that it got personalised for me."

"As I said before," Spike said, "it's a wonder you ever wake up."

"Erica," Angel said, "would you mind making one of those mirrors so that we can keep an eye on the office?"

"Sure." She pulled up a table from the floor and made a reflective surface on the top. The surface was already wet and Erica did her thing. The office shimmered into view and showed them Cordelia at the front desk with a magazine in front of her. Lawson was out of sight so Erica moved the image to show him on the couch with a few of the old books.

"Things look quiet enough," Spike commented, "so maybe we should stay here awhile and do that sparring practice."

Angel nodded and turned back to Erica. "You up for some fighting?" he asked.

Erica gave a little grin. "It's what the place is made for," she answered. She walked toward the closest wall and pushed up a panel, revealing a long row of different sized weapons, including maces, swords, knives, staffs and axes. "You want something different?" she asked.

"Was that there before?" Spike asked.

"Nope," Erica said. "Now, what's your order? Give me any demon I've studied, or describe one to me, and I'll make you a Shadow Fighter that looks and acts like it." As she spoke, the training room extended to give them lots of room to move. "Give me a scenario too and I'll change the background to fit. Sewers, jungles, those tunnels under my old school; I just want to make things interesting."

"No," Angel said, "this is fine." Then he lifted his sword and ran at Erica. She ducked and rolled past him when he swung at her. She still had the sword in her hand and she kept it raised as she skipped back a few paces to keep the both of them in sight and out of reach.

"_That_ kind of sparring practice?" she said shortly. She didn't seem upset, or even overconfident like before. She was simply wary, waiting for the next attack.

Angel hesitated long enough to tell Spike, "Take a break and watch the office until your turn."

**AN: I feel like I should apologise for the amount of dialogue in this chapter. There was a lot that I wanted to explain, and unfortunately it fell on Erica to be the exposition character, so the conversations seem very one-sided and they don't seem to flow too well between characters. But hey, just writing it gives me practice with my dialogue skills so hopefully I'll improve. I also hope my description of what can happen in the Sanctuary wasn't too confusing. **


	4. Work, work, work

**AN: 'Thought I'd lighten the mood and put a brief bit in this chapter between Spike and Erica. And don't forget, time can pass differently between dimensions.**

**Chapter 4: **Work, work, work.

Angel and Spike knew that they'd still have several months in which to train her, so once Angel was satisfied with her progress so far he gave her a break and then let her send him back to the office while Spike had his turn. Her late night practice sessions in the Sanctuary had obviously paid off, because she had a smooth technique and was reacting quickly enough to keep either vampire from getting past her defences; at least most of the time.

It wasn't easy for her to get past their defences either, even though she had cheated a little to make it so she had a Slayer's level of speed and strength. The two vampires were still much more experienced than she was, but then, they'd had centuries to become good fighters. All Erica had was whatever instincts she'd been given as a Potential, her childhood and recent defence lessons, and the advantages her Sanctuary allowed her, which couldn't completely make up for the lack of experience.

Spike had chosen a sword for the time being and Erica had switched her short sword for a heavier one so that they were more evenly matched in striking distance. They sparred for a while until Spike saw that Erica was getting tired. "Let's have a break for now, then," he said to her.

Erica stepped back and lowered her sword. "All right." She looked nearby and made a cushioned bench rise up out of the ground.

"'Don't suppose you could conjure up a couple of beers too?" Spike asked as he let his own sword drop to the ground.

Erica sighed and smiled. "It would probably look and taste like beer, but like the Shadow Fighters, it would still just end up being air."

"Ah," Spike said as they sat down together. "Now I know why you wake up(!)" He glanced at the mirror, where there still wasn't much activity going on. "Can they see us through that?"

"Who?" she asked. "Angel, Cordy and Lawson? No. 'Best they can do is sense that someone's watching. I could probably send a mirror back through a portal though."

"No, no," Spike said, "don't do that." He reached up with one hand to run a finger over her cheek. She flinched when his fingers grazed the outline of her scar. "Don't worry about that, love." He raised his scarred eyebrow. "Stuff like that just shows – what do they call it – character. That little mark can't diminish you."

Erica smiled. "Thanks. But is this my life now? Am I just going to keep collecting war injuries until, what? They get another Potential to replace me because I'm too old to fight anymore?"

"Don't worry about that. Once you, uh, 'graduate', I'm pretty sure you get immortality."

"How would you know that?" Erica asked.

"Well," Spike seemed to be wording his comments carefully, "the person who recruited us mentioned it."

Erica was quiet for a moment. "You all get jumpy when we talk about why we're doing this. Why? What's the big secret?" Spike seemed to hesitate, so she added, "If the powers let you say it to me this time then I guess I'm allowed to know."

Spike nodded, looking down at his hands. "All right. It was a Guardian, at the end of her time as a mortal. She fought alongside us and healed us. Her own injuries disappeared like magic; so I guess you don't have to worry about your scars."

"Another Guardian?" Erica said with a confused frown. "Is this like a Slayer thing? If one falls another gets chosen? I thought the Oracle ghosts were looking after the dimension stuff until I was ready for it."

"I don't think it's a Slayer thing. It was you, Rika. The Powers warped reality so you could help us and let us choose whether to help you. You were a bit older than you are now, and once we made our decision you sent us off to find you in that school."

Erica raised her eyebrows. "Me? _I_ sent you to save my life?"

"Yeah," Spike said. "You also helped us be more human too; it was something to do with Life energy, I think."

"So I _healed_ you and made you more alive. That doesn't make me a Necromancer, does it? Or, I mean, it won't, will it?"

"Nah," Spike said. "Necromancers control the dead, they don't make them alive again."

"I _have_ improved with the healing," Erica admitted. "I guess I can believe that I'll be able to use Life like that one day. How old…? Never mind. I probably shouldn't know too much."

"Yeah," Spike agreed. "That's why we haven't told you too much about why we do this. If nothing else, it's a bit confusing." He glanced at the mirror again and frowned. "Is it just me, or is everyone back there moving a little slowly?"

"Oops!" Erica said when she looked up. She looked both surprised and embarrassed. "I think that was me. I wanted time to talk before we'd be needed back. I guess this place was responding to my will again, and giving us more time."

"Well don't blush then," Spike chuckled, "it's a good thing." He put his arm around her shoulders. "We can spend extra time here and the 'boss' never needs to know that we did."

"Well," Erica said slowly, "I could always get in more practice with controlling things here."

"Work, work, work!" Spike said, tugging some of her hair playfully. "Is that all you have in mind?"

"Oh no," Erica assured him as she stood up. "I have some fun in mind." Instantaneously a wall sprang up between them. It turned into a tall hedge and Spike found himself alone in a maze, but he could still smell her nearby. Carved on a plaque on the wall in front of him were the words: 'Come find me'. After a few moments the words reformed to say, 'but beware of the Guards'.

He looked up and saw floating mirrors that were focussed on the office. Beyond the mirrors was what looked like blue sky and uniform fluffy white clouds. The sword he'd chosen was lying on a brown pebbled path at his feet. He sighed and picked it up. "Alice in bloody Wonderland," he said to himself, and started walking. He should have known she'd come up with something out of the ordinary; she was a writer after all.

**888**

Lindsey was singing at Caritas for an appreciative demon crowd.

"Nice to have you back," Lorne, the owner, said to him when he had finished. "Hey, I hear you're working with Angel's group. Gotta tell you, even an empath like me didn't see that one coming." He handed Lindsey a drink.

"Yeah, well I don't work for him," Lindsey said a little defensively. "We just have some common interests now. What'd you read from me?"

"Girl troubles," Lorne explained, taking a final sip of his own drink before putting the glass down on the bar.

"Can't you be a little bit more specific?" Lindsey asked him.

Lorne nodded. "You know that new blonde that's supposed to be your problem now? You've got about a week left to convince her that there's something worth living for in this dimension, or else your new workmate Cordelia is going to pay for it."

"Eve," Lindsey said, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"Yeah, and as a personal favour, don't tell her you come here, okay? I'm getting the message that after she gets Cordy she'll want to come after me. Heaven knows why; I haven't done anything to her in this lifetime."

"Not yet, anyway," Lindsey said as he glanced around the club. He looked back at Lorne. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, one more thing," Lorne replied. "Different girl, and a different message. It's this: 'Don't lose hope, because it's not over yet'."

**888**

After having dealt with a couple of troll-like Fighters and a trap door that had nearly caught him, Spike was beginning to get into the spirit of the game. He knew by smell and sound that he'd come close to catching Erica more than once. He was, after all, a predator by nature, and his current prey was giving him an interesting chase by any standards.

He knew that in about fifteen minutes he'd be given a window to catch up with her as she stopped to reform the Shadow Fighters, and he was confident that he'd be quick enough to get to her before she finished. Then she'd find out what a mistake it was to mess around with the Big Bad. He chuckled to himself as he went around another corner.

"Help me!" He could distantly hear, somewhere to his left and up above him. The hedge lowered so he could see what was going on. It seemed like someone was caught in a tall white tower.

"Oh please," Spike muttered to himself. As fun as it was to cut his way through this faux fairytale land, he wasn't really one for the knight in shining armour bit. But then again, he thought to himself, the knight usually got some kind of reward after he finished a quest.

Still, he didn't think too much of Erica for playing the helpless princess part. He'd been sure that she preferred to take action rather that stand by and let herself be rescued, especially after what had happened with Eve's mercenaries. On the other hand, maybe she was just trying to say that she trusted him to be there for her. In any case, he knew that finishing the quest would finish the game, and next time he could suggest a different scenario to play out.

He left the maze and found himself in a clearing. There was a black and white tiled floor that stretched ahead for several metres and then a tree-filled swamp-land began. Past the swamp was the tower, so it was obvious where he was supposed to go. At the edge of the swamp was a blank signpost. He started walking toward it to see if there was something written on the other side.

The ground began rumbling and the tress ahead of him were shaking. A scaly green monster lumbered through the trees toward him. It was supposed to look like a dragon, but so far Erica had only had the pictures in the books to work with, and the engravers had tended to exaggerate.

It was long-necked, four-footed, and had huge webbed wings. By simply flexing the wings a breeze was made to flow back toward Spike. It's mouth was a little too wide and its snout was too flat, and it had an abundance of pointed teeth. It had slitted golden eyes and a short crest that looked like a webbed Mohawk on its head.

"Oh hell," Spike muttered as it drew back in that unmistakeable fire breathing pose. He tensed so that he could throw himself to one side and heard a strange sound off to his right.

"Aaaargh!" yelled a newcomer who was running full tilt at the monster. The newcomer was fully clad in battered grey armour, with a tatty black feather drooping from the top of his helmet. He had a large broadsword levelled at the beast and a curved shield. The dragon turned to face the knight and endured a hit to the side of the face from a basketball sized clump of flying green flames.

As the knight swiped at the dragon's ankles Spike turned to see a red robed figure with gnarled hands and a golden cord tying the robe around his waist. His face was in shadow because of the hood, but Spike recognised him to be a cheesy version of a wizard. At least things were getting interesting.

The wizard kept throwing fireballs at the beast, scorching it every time the flames landed. The knight was having far less success; as Spike saw when the dragon ducked it's head down to bite at his sword arm. While the dragon's attention was diverted Spike tried to sneak around it and had to leap backward to avoid a green fireball. The wizard was aiming at him. Spike sidestepped quickly and positioned himself so that the knight and the dragon were between him and the wizard.

The dragon dropped the knight to the ground after managing to tear through the armour of his arm and mangling it. While the wizard kept hitting the dragon with flames on the back, Spike ducked in and shoved the point of his sword up and under one of the dragon's chest scales. It screeched loudly enough to make both Spike and the wizard stumble back and grab their ears. Then, like a vampire, the dragon burst into smouldering ashes, leaving behind three of its foot-long teeth.

One of the teeth levitated up and over toward the wizard, who whistled shrilly as he grabbed hold of the tooth. A large black horse appeared out of nowhere and went to the wizard, who mounted up and rode off into the swamp and out of sight.

Spike looked over at the knight, who was getting to his feet and using his remaining good arm to raise his sword. He gave a battle cry and ran at Spike, who wasted little time in fending him off and disarming him. As soon as the knight lost his sword, he dissolved like the other Shadow Fighters. The third tooth also disappeared, so Spike decided that Erica must have decided to make the dragon teeth important. And he'd thought normal women were difficult to predict!

He picked up the remaining tooth and walked toward the sign to see what instructions Erica had decided to give him. 'Wizard, Rogue and Knight,' he read silently, 'here to test their might. There are no stairs to the prisoner, fair, at the infamous tower of White.

Well it seemed he wasn't the knight, and he certainly wasn't the wizard, so he was the rogue, which suited him fine. He was a little wary of the no stairs thing, though. He'd already gotten rid of the knight, so maybe there'd be stairs once he managed to beat the wizard. The only weapon he'd seen the wizard use was the fireballs, and Spike couldn't disarm him of those, could he? And then what was he supposed to use the tooth for? He tucked the tooth into one of his coat pockets anyway.

He shook his head and ran into the swamp so that the wizard wouldn't get too far ahead of him. Game or not, he wasn't about to let himself lose to a fictional character! He crossed rope bridges and climbed branches, dodging the occasional fireball thrown his way. It seemed that the wizard was playing with him, and perhaps could only win the game if Spike was defeated first.

He was forcing his way through a thick row of hedges when he felt something grab at his leg. He forced his way past the bushes and a skinny brown creature only three feet tall that Spike identified as an imp was dragged out behind him. Spike chopped down at it with his sword but it let go of his leg and sprang away out of reach.

Spike repeatedly swung at the imp without success as it dodged with inhuman speed. It jumped at his face and grabbed onto his shoulders as it tried to claw him. Spike tore it away from himself and threw it to the ground before attempting to stomp on it as it rolled away. It swung out with its feet and knocked Spike to the ground. It scrambled over the top of him and then jumped away.

Spike scrambled to his feet and looked up as he saw the imp scampering away with his dragon tooth. "Ugly little blighter!" Spike snarled as he ran after it. It seemed to be faster than he was so he threw his sword, spearing it in the back as it made a horrible shriek. He retrieved the tooth and ran for the tower. Less than a minute later he could see it in front of him.

"No stairs, huh?" he said with a wry chuckle, looking up at the mahogany brown elevator resting at the foot of the tower. Their little Realm Guardian definitely had a sense of humour. He couldn't see any buttons to open the doors with, but he did see three round holes in the side. One of them was filled in with a dragon tooth. He needed the other two teeth to work the elevator. He needed the wizard.

He put his own dragon tooth in one of the holes and ran back to the tree line, waiting for the wizard to make his move. Sure enough, the spell-caster appeared. The wizard put his tooth in the final hole and the doors opened. As the doors closed behind the wizard Spike ran for the elevator, grabbing onto an outside rail as it started to lift into the air.

Spike used the sword to wedge open the elevator doors, and he kicked out at the wizards feet before he could make another fireball. He grabbed the wizards ankle and dragged him out of the elevator and let him fall. They were already a considerable distance from the ground and the wizard let out a shriek.

Spike let the doors close behind him and waited for the elevator ride to end. It had to be almost over now. He was glad that Erica hadn't decided to put any silly music in the elevator. The inner doors opened into a large circular room. There was a white silken curtain a few feet in front of him, and he could see the shadow of a figure standing behind it. He pushed the curtain aside to see a life-size cardboard cut-out of Angel, with a big goofy smile and with a blonde wig hanging over the head and a tutu skirt tied around the waist.

Spike looked around and saw the wizard climbing in through a window, with huge white wings poking out of his back. "You beat me," the wizard said, while pulling back the hood. It was Erica, and she pulled off the gnarled hands like gloves.

"I could have killed you," Spike said reproachfully, dropping the sword.

"Not here you couldn't," she said confidently. "That sword hasn't been real since you picked it up – it just felt real to you." The robes morphed into her own clothes and the sword disintegrated as she smiled at Spike. "So what grade do I get for 'controlling dimensions'?"

Spike glanced at the Angel cut-out, laughed and said, "A plus. But a C minus for fighting practice, because you cheated when you used those fireballs."

"What do you mean?" Erica said. "I was controlling every single move that imp used against you. I had to react fast and everything; you never landed a single sword strike – that's got to count for something. Besides, we already did our sparring practice earlier."

"All right, all right," Spike relented, walking toward her as her wings disappeared, "A minus, with room for improvement. So you decided not to be the princess?"

"Please," Erica said with a smile, as he pulled her into a hug. "That wouldn't have been any fun; just waiting up here for you to come get me. Besides, the sign said 'prisoner', not princess. I still figured that you'd assume it was me."

"Well, you fooled me," Spike admitted. "But I still won the game."

"Of course," Erica said. She glanced around and everything faded back into the training room, with the mirror on the wall. "So what's your prize, besides something you can drink or eat?"

"I think you know," Spike said, and kissed her.

**888**

**AN: Yeah, the Alice in Wonderland/Princess in a tower story is a bit clichéd, but a lot of my other chapters were gloomy, so I took the opportunity to have a little fun, and to let Erica and Spike do the same. Yes, I suck at poetry (the little sign).**


	5. Hegira

**888**

**AN: Well, this Fic is called 'Other Realms', so guess where we're going today? By the way, I forgot to thank people for being so patient waiting for the last chapter, and for this one too. My Blade-Fic is FINISHED after all this time. Anyway, thanks for waiting and offering encouragement.**

**Chapter 5: **Hegira

3 months later…

Erica lay sprawled on the pavement in the semi darkness, gasping for air. Damn, those vamps hit hard. She rolled away as one of the swarm of vampires kicked out at her stomach again. She ignored the hand that appeared beside her to help her up, and flicked up and out with her feet to flip herself back upright.

Lawson went back to watching Cordy's back and Erica started blocking the punk vamp's attacks. This green haired one needed breath mints, badly. He grabbed her jacket and tried to pull her close but she gave him a rapid palm-strike to the nose that whipped his head back and he grunted. She grabbed his wrists and twisted out between them so that he was behind her and she threw him over her shoulder.

She had a second to see Cordelia decapitate one with her sword and Lawson punching another before another of them was upon her. She didn't have time to look up above to see Angel keeping watch. The two girls were being tested again, especially as it was becoming evident that Erica's slayer strengths were continuing to emerge. She still wasn't as strong as a vampire, and wouldn't be until after the true Tests, but she was now clearly better than any normal human.

It had been her job to track down and monitor this vamp nest until she was ready to strike. Angel had decided she needed leadership and strategic planning skills now as well as fighting ones. One of her protectors was allowed to back them up, because of the number of vamps, and it was her responsibility to make sure that they would have a tactical advantage, and would be able to keep the human Seer from getting outnumbered.

She ducked a punch and used the arm to wrist lock the vampire, a redheaded female, and swung her around to hit the wall. Another one was behind her and she instinctively ducked his swing with a crowbar and kicked back into his midsection. She grabbed an empty crate and used it to block him and then thew it at his face, ducking in to disarm him, and then swung around and deliver a nasty blow to the back of his head.

She saw a vampire running for it and threw the crowbar at his feet to trip him up. She ducked around Lawson and his opponents to stake the vampire before he could get back up. Time to finish up. She ducked as the female did a fly kick straight at her head, and weaved again as green-hair tried to corner her between them. She rolled out of the way and back to her feet, then threw him over her shoulder again as he pursued her. While he was on the ground on his back she simultaneously staked him and kicked back into the female's stomach. In her ducked down position she swiped the feet out from under the female and then darted forward to stake her too.

She got up to pull a vampire away from Lawson, whose only job was to distract the targets, not take them out, so he didn't have a weapon. The girls were supposed to be the hunters tonight. Spike was off doing some investigations for a case. Cordelia was now dealing with one who kept swinging a heavy chain at her. Erica staked another after wrist-locking him, then engaged the last two of Lawson's opponents, leaving him free to go and watch over Cordy.

She was fast and agile enough to keep from being hit while she blocked them, and one by one she was able to take them out. Cordelia finished off hers at about the same time, and the girls looked around to make sure that there weren't any more of them possibly waiting in ambush. Silently they went to the nearby buildings and checked the corridors, but they were finished for the night.

888

It was four o'clock in the morning the next night when Erica lurched out of her bed and stumbled off to get herself a drink of water. She couldn't remember her dream, but something had woken her up and left her in a cold sweat. She had this feeling that she had slept in, and was supposed to be doing something.

She was through the doorway and almost at the kitchen when the feeling of responsibility increased until it felt almost like a near-painful stab of guilt. At the same time she heard a screech from Cordelia's bedroom. She beat Lawson to the room to find Cordy sitting up and clutching her head in her classic vision pose.

She went to the top drawer of Cordy's dresser where they all knew she kept her painkillers, and gave her two of them with the glass of water she'd originally gotten for herself.

"Ugh, you woke me up for that?" Cordelia seemed to be complaining at the ceiling. She took the pills and looked at Erica. "You need to check your mirror. The Powers have a job for you."

"My mirror?" Erica asked.

"Well, any mirror." Cordy said. "It's like your cosmic answering machine now. Maybe now the Powers will give my head a good long rest, now that they can get in contact with you directly." She handed the glass back to Erica with a little bit of water in the bottom.

Erica turned and flung the leftover water at Cordelia's dresser mirror, and focussed on seeing an image of other realms. The water spread and the surface of the mirror reformed until it was blank and white. A strange script began to appear on its surface. It wasn't in English, but Erica frowned. "Can anyone else read that?" she asked.

The other two shook their heads.

"Well," Erica continued uncertainly, "I've never seen that before, but I understand it."

"Well, go on," Lawson said, gesturing toward the mirror, "translate."

"It says: 'You are needed.' I guess they're talking to me. Uh, 'The temple relic at Hegira is damaged and must be repaired by the Guardian. It is a device that allows the temple guards to prevent the escape of powerful demons from a prison world, which is only reachable from the temple grounds. Every world, including your own will be in danger if the demons gain control of their portal. Speak the words "Hegira Temple" to one of your realm reflections and it will show you where to direct your portal.' This sounds urgent." Erica looked back at Lawson and Cordelia with a worried expression on her face.

"Hence the vision, I guess," Cordy said wearily.

"Go back to sleep, Cor," Lawson said soothingly. "The rest of us will handle this."

"Sure," Cordelia said with a weak smile, "you superheroes go do your thing."

Lawson nodded and turned to Erica. "Go get changed; I'll call Spike and Angel." As Erica left, Lawson looked back at Cordelia. "You know, you're a hero too. Those visions look awful to go through, so it makes you extremely brave to have volunteered for them."

"Yeah well," Cordelia said tiredly, "they're not finished with me yet. The Powers have got the mirror to talk to Erica with, but they'll still use me for all the normal visions about trouble in this dimension."

"But you'll hang in there right?" Lawson asked.

"I'll manage." Cordelia said with a brave smile. "Apparently I've done it before."

Lawson still looked concerned for a moment, but when Cordelia glanced up at him he wiped the look from his face, smiled encouragingly and gave her hand a squeeze before getting up to make his phone call.

888

There was a rustle of papers flowing down the streets, the soft slap of water against the docks somewhere nearby, and the scuff of flat shoes on a concrete path, but otherwise the area was hushed. The air looked orange under the streetlight, and Eve passed underneath it, holding a brown shopping bag at her side and huddling under a thigh-length black coat to keep the night-time chill at bay.

She hurried through the partially open door of a steel warehouse. A match flared and an old kerosene lamp began to light the room. "A little low tech, isn't it?" Eve asked.

"Fire is the most primal force of Life we have." Another blonde's face was lit up as she stepped into the circle, and Darla gave Eve an impassive look. Then she lifted up her wrist and gazed at the blue veins in it. "Well, almost." She said more quietly.

"Yeah," Lilah Morgan said dryly, "that's nice and dramatic, Darla. If we're done playing, ladies, we can get started."

888

The three vampires and Erica came through the portal as soon as they could prepare themselves. All of them were wearing weapons, and Erica had her crossbow slung over her shoulder on a thick leather strap and a short sword at her waist. Her strength _was_ improving rapidly with her night-time training sessions, but Angel still felt that it would be better for Erica to have speed rather than might when faced with a real-life, dangerous combat situation; hence the lighter blade.

They were in a rocky, grassy clearing that only stretched about as wide as the hotel lobby before the ground was covered with tall trees that formed almost a perfect circle to enclose them. Even with the clearing, the sunlight was filtered by the far-reaching branches of some of the tallest trees that Erica, at least, had ever seen. Even the long-lived vampires were hard-put to recall a time when they had seen anything taller. As a result, the atmosphere seemed to have a greenish tinge to it and the air was filled with the smells of wet dirt and algae. The only sounds were the quiet hums of insects and the occasional croak of a frog or a toad. Hegira seemed to be a marshland.

The four of them began to look around for signs of intelligent life by taking several steps forward and peering through the trees. Erica walked to the centre of the clearing and knelt by a stone that was perfectly square. She put her hand on it and felt it shift slightly.

"What have you got there?" Spike asked, coming back toward her.

Erica shook her head. "I don't know, but it's not a natural formation."

"Maybe it's some kind of lever or button," Lawson said, as he returned to stand behind Erica.

"Maybe it's a booby trap," Angel said cautiously. He drew his own sword as he said, "Back up a little." The others moved back as Angel used his sword to push the stone further into the ground. Instantly his sword began to fade from sight. Angel dropped it but his hands and then his body also disappeared from sight. Spike grabbed Erica's shoulder and yanked her backward and Lawson also retreated hastily. Their boss was either invisible or gone.

"Stay calm," Lawson advised, as Erica looked at the stone in apparent shock. Spike gave Lawson a hard look over Erica's shoulder.

"Now what?" Spike asked.

"The rest of you should follow," an unseen being spoke out. "The temple guards are waiting for the Guardian and her companions. The transition will not harm anyone in possession of a soul."

The three looked at each other. Erica shrugged; the expression contradicting her pale-looking face. "We're _meant_ to be here," she said, as much to convince herself as the others. "Cordy wouldn't have been sent the vision otherwise." Before the other two could stop her she deliberately stepped on the stone and let its magics claim her.

Without further conversation the other two followed, for they would be no use as protectors if they didn't stay with their charge.

They were relieved to find themselves in an enclosed stone room with Angel, who had to refrain from stabbing at them when they materialised beside him. There were no windows but the room seemed to be gently lit by an unseen source. At the other end of the room was a curtain made up of thick, sea-blue hanging threads that let off a soft glow and completely obscured whatever was behind them.

The same voice addressed them from behind the curtain. "We are waiting. Approach."

Wordlessly, the four of them did as they were told, with Angel leading the way. The curtain of light flickered as each of the vampires passed through, but they managed to leave unhampered. They were met by an olive skinned man in a grey robe, who wore a bronze circlet on his bald head. He looked human, but seemed to give off an air of being… _other_.

"What's with the curtain?" Spike, predictably, was the one to break the silence.

"It is our last barrier before prisoners make it outside to freedom. Many whom we guard do not possess souls, and the curtain will entrap any of those beings who try to pass it. It too, will fail soon, if the relic cannot be repaired in time." His gaze penetrated each of them in turn. "She is unTested…" he remarked. "Without the full power of the Ancients it will take more time and energy to repair the relic."

"Then tell me what to do and I'll get started." Erica replied, vaguely annoyed at how he spoke of her as if she weren't there.

"Come," he said simply, and without further words he turned and walked down the corridor and into an open, white stone room. There were a few other identical looking priests scattered around the room, either busy reading parchments and such, or looking expectantly at the newcomers. In the middle of the room was a pedestal on which sat a bronze globe; a perfectly shaped sphere the size of a basketball.

"That's it?" Angel asked.

The priest said nothing, and the one who had led them in merely watched Erica. She approached the pedestal and frowned. "What do I do with it?" she asked.

"A fully fledged Guardian would know," he said, almost like an accusation. "It is in your best interests to not leave this room until you are finished with it. It is the most protected place, whereas most of the other corridors have been closed off. Small portals have been opening in the areas of this place that are farthest from the relic. We are powerful enough to hold off the lower beings that emerge … for the time being. Once the relic is repaired it will automatically banish them back into the prison realm. You should begin your work now." He told her, making it sound more like an order than a request.

He addressed the others. "You may assist us in patrolling the nearer corridors." Again, it did not sound like a request. Three of the priests stepped toward the vampires and each chose a partner to lead through the temple. Though reluctant to leave Erica in the company of strangers, the three of them obeyed, seeing that they could not help her in her task.

"Great(!)" Erica muttered under her breath as she turned back toward the relic. The only things she knew how to do were fight, make portals and heal people.

The priest hadn't even given her that much information. "It's broken, it banishes demons, and only I can fix it." She sighed. She reached out to touch it and found it cold and hard. "How am I even supposed to know if I'm making any progress?" she asked herself.

She decided to try and heal it, even though it wasn't a living thing. She pictured flames and warmth in her mind, touched it and … nothing. Not even the tingly feeling that preceded the healing. She sighed again and glanced around. All of the priests had left the room to continue with their various duties.

She looked back at the globe and did her best to study it. It was the same colour and had the same smooth surface the entire way around. She couldn't even tell how it had been broken. What did it look like when it was working? She felt useless.

888

The priests had taken the vampires back outside to circle the temple perimeter. Angel was with the bossy head priest and they pushed their way through the undergrowth toward the furthest point from the relic, which was where breakouts would be the most likely. The priest looked unarmed except for a long wooden staff with a bronze cap on the end.

They became aware of a growling sound and they hurried forward to find some form of hellbeast that was leaping from tree to tree. Angel immediately leaped up after it and tried repeatedly to decapitate it or at least stab it, but it was much more agile in the trees than he was. It got around behind him and leaped for his back. Angel shoved himself back out of the way and fell heavily to the ground. The hellbeast chased him and darted in to snap at his face. It was stopped short by a tap on the back by the priest and his staff. It yelped and was caught up in a swirl of purple and bronze haze, and it disappeared.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to do that?" Angel asked.

"You did not ask," the priest said simply. "And you seemed eager for the chase, so I allowed it."

"How generous," Angel muttered.

888

Maybe she needed another symbol. She'd already graduated past needing fire for healing people, but this wasn't a person. This was something much older and more powerful than anything she'd ever tried to fix. Against her best intentions her mind wandered to Cordelia. She felt guilty about being the cause of most of her headaches. But thinking of Cordelia gave her an idea though.

She grabbed a water bottle out of her shoulder bag and her little mirror that had a raised edge so that it would hold just enough water to show her an image. She left it blank and hoped that the Powers would send her more information, but nothing appeared.

Next she tried the healing again, this time with a small flame from a lighter that she carried around, hoping that it would strengthen her efforts. The water in the mirror rippled, and though it remained blank, Erica realised that it _was_ trying to tell her something. This must have something deeper to do with the symbols. She thought back to what they were supposed to mean and represent.

The healing came from the blood of the ancients running through her veins, and she used to have to trigger it with Life energy in the form of fire. The water was a representation of the pools of reality in the Midrealm. They were the bridges between realms, but what she needed to do here was to help the relic prevent and block those bridges, not create them. She needed to strengthen the barriers that kept the prison reality apart from this one and all others.

She didn't touch the water, but she visualised the walls in the portals that she'd been through. What they looked like, what they felt like, how flexible but impenetrable they felt. She put her hand over the top of the mirror and concentrated on just those walls, not a destination. The water rose up and the flame flickered. She let the water engulf the tiny flame and it changed into a deep grey colour and floated in a ball-shape in front of her hand. She didn't put it to the relic just yet, because she felt that something was still missing.

"The Realm Guardian must monitor the bridges between realities," she whispered. "Uh, she does so with the blood of the ancients, the essence of Life flowing through her." The blood of the ancients. She cut her middle finger with her short sword and let a few drops fall into her creation. Not yet, she felt, even though the ball convulsed and changed colour to match the swirling blue and purple of the portal walls. She wet all of her fingertips with the blood and laid it on top of the relic. An invisible seam split apart and the sphere became a bowl shape. She let her creation rest inside and the ball reformed and changed colour, brightening into shiny gold.

She felt a tug inside her, like she did when being transported in the portals. Everything in her tingled like it did for healing, and she was light-headed for a moment as her strength was used to rebuild the barriers.

"It is done," she heard behind her, from one of the priests. His headband was still bronze until he stepped forward and laid his hands on the relic. His connection with it was re-established and the circlet flared back to life.

"Who are you guys," Erica asked. "Really?"

"We are the custodians of the relic, and keepers of the knowledge of realities. We are your agents, Guardian, tasked with monitoring this realm for you. It is our responsibility to reopen the portals whenever you send a prisoner here, and to prevent anything from escaping when we do."

"So what happened," Erica asked. "Why did the relic fail?"

"Every few centuries the relic must be re-strengthened." the priest said. "We are not immortal, and when one of us dies, another is reborn. None of the current priests were alive the last time the relic was repaired, and we failed to recognise the signs that it needed to be done. Its weakening was most likely triggered by the transfer of power from the ancients to you. It should not happen again in your lifetime."

"Good to know," she said. "What now?"

"You may return with your companions, but I would advise you to stay a little longer and learn more about who you are."

Erica looked surprised. "You can teach me stuff?"

"We are the keepers of the knowledge of realities," the priest repeated.

"Yeah, but that head-guy seemed like a close-mouthed pain in the butt, no offence."

"Though you are unTested you have completed this trial at least. We cannot teach you everything, but you are entitled to know a little more about your own realm and this realm now."

"How long will it take?" Erica asked.

"Depending on the lesson, hours or days. Today, only a few hours. Will you stay?"

"I guess. I'll send the others back first, though."

He ducked his head a little. "As you wish."

888


	6. Going back

**Chapter 6: **Going back

"So why did the Ancients choose a mortal like me for this job?" Erica asked.

"The last of the Ancients have either been destroyed," the priest explained, "like the Oracles, the previous Guardians, or for one reason or another can no longer access many of the worlds. Some of them have become dormant and others have responsibilities that keep them occupied elsewhere. Often when powerful immortals travel through dimensions the worlds themselves and their inhabitants are altered just by their presence, but a mortal with immortal powers can have more control over the changes they make. The Oracles foretold that a child of humanity should be the next to take control, especially because someone who understands mortality would also understand the value in safeguarding it. Any normal mortal would be killed by the power you have been given already, let alone that which you have yet to access, so they had to choose a mortal with special qualities. A potential slayer is already subtly linked to the world of demons, as ancient demon spirits were used to create them."

"And when am I going to get the rest of the power?"

"When you are deemed ready." The head priest interrupted. "That is enough for now."

"Thank you, _sir_," Erica muttered under her breath.

"Send her home," he ordered the priest, then walked away.

Erica was slowly shaking her head at him as he walked away. "What an asshole." She muttered, but she turned to the other priest with a smile. "Thank you for your time," she said politely, while gathering up her things.

The priest nodded. "You will need to leave the temple, as the relic you healed will prevent you from creating any portal in here that does not lead to the prison realm. I will take you."

He walked ahead of her toward the soul curtains and to the farthest wall. He took her hand and laid his other hand on the wall. They felt a gentle tugging, and then they stood in the shaded grove.

He turned and inclined his head to her. "When you return, come directly through to find me."

"Thank you," she said, as he touched the stone and disappeared again, leaving her alone in the grove.

She pulled out her water bottle and conjured another portal with the last of the water. She was secretly relieved to be out of the temple, because the constant background buzzing of the powerful magic within it had been starting to make her light-headed.

She stepped forward and then immediately tried to step back. She could smell smoke, oil and if darkness had its own scent then she could smell that too. She felt the wrongness coming from the portal and she tried to force herself away from its pull. Shimmering tendrils stretched forward from the portal to wrap around her and yank her through. She gave a short shriek but no one could help her.

888

It was completely dark where she landed, and Erica held herself still until the nausea passed. It had been some time since a portal had gone wrong like this, and she was sure that it wasn't her fault this time. Someone or something had interfered. She didn't need her mirror to tell her that she was not in her home realm. She also knew that she wasn't in Hegira or the prison realm. When she'd healed the relic she had caught a taste of what the realm's energies felt like, and this wasn't it. As she was supposed to, she was developing an extra sense about the realms she had been to, so that she could recognise them.

She was on her side and holding herself up off the floor with her hands, so she could feel rough concrete beneath her. She pushed back until she was sitting up. She looked up and around, but unfortunately even a Slayer only possesses limited night vision. She felt around for her shoulder-bag , her crossbow and her short sword, but they were gone. She could hear walking above her; someone who was light and wearing heels.

She was blinded as someone struck a match and put it to a lamp, and she shielded her eyes as they adjusted to the dim light. She was in a three-metre (just under ten ft) deep pit that had metal bars crisscrossing over the opening above her. There was a design drawn in blood on the concrete beneath her. As her vision cleared she saw a slim blonde woman standing at the edge of the pit, holding the lamp.

At first she thought it was Eve, but as she stared she realised it was a different blonde. Still, she knew she was in the same realm she'd sent Eve to. Her mistake.

She got up and waited for the woman to say something, but she just smiled unkindly and stepped back out of sight. Erica moved to the edge of the pit and felt along the walls. It was smooth rock without any handholds, though she hadn't really expected any.

She thought she could hear muffled chanting, and the pattern below her began to gently glow. Erica felt a stinging in her palms. A tiny hole, like a pinprick, was in the middle of each of her hands, and slowly drops of blood began to well up. She pressed her hands together but gradually the blood trickled down her wrists and dripped to the floor. The design wavered as the blood sank into it, and Erica realised that it was drawing the blood from her. She was unlikely to bleed to death at this rate, but her tiny wounds weren't closing either.

In the next room within the warehouse Darla walked toward a large stone bowl set upon a matching pedestal, engraved in bronze designs that spelt out an ancient incantation. There were lit candles placed all around the room, and the smell of incense and oils was heavy in the air.

The shaman beside her stopped chanting, but the sounds of the spell continued to echo on without him. He nodded his head respectfully to Darla. "It is done," he said. They both watched as blood started to well up from apparently nowhere in the bowl.

"How long can she 'donate' like this?" Darla asked.

"That depends," the shaman answered, "if you feed her and don't allow her to injure herself, then she'll last for a human lifespan. If you intend to keep her here that long, then the enchantment will need monthly strengthening. You'll know where to find me if that is your decision."

"Good." Darla said. "You can go now." The shaman nodded again and moved away. Darla looked back at the bowl and smiled greedily.

888

Lilah smiled and hung up the phone she'd been using. "She's there, and Darla's in place. Are you ready?" she asked Eve.

"Of course," Eve replied with a sneaky smile. She opened up a box on the table and pulled out a woven necklace made with strands of reddish brown hair that looked suspiciously like Erica's, as well as having beads and tiny engraved stones attached to it. She tied it around her neck and covered her face with her hands. When she removed them it was Erica's face that smiled at Lilah, and slowly her blonde hair changed to match the Guardian's.

"Good," Lilah remarked. "I think you need to go pay your ex-employer and your ex-boyfriend a visit."

888


	7. Hiding in the open

**To Imzadi: Come on, it wouldn't have been any fun if he knew straight away! A/N: In the first episode of Buffy, Giles told her that a Slayer should be able to _sense_ when a vampire is near. Although they never mentioned it again, I'm going to use that principle.**

**Chapter 7:** Hiding in the open

There was screaming coming from the basement of a condemned apartment building. A teenage girl was being dragged by her hair into the centre of a circle of snarling demons. All of them were identical to each other; over 6ft tall, grey skin, stocky arms and legs, a pair of horns and yellow eyes.

As she was held down by two others, the leader covered her in animal blood and held a knife up high as he communicated with his brothers. The girl shut her tear-filled eyes tightly and prayed; sure that she was going to die.

Suddenly her hair was yanked backward and then she was freed. All of the monsters were yelling in their guttural language and running about. Some of them headed toward the stairs, where a group of armed people were coming down. The rest were trying to escape down a narrow passage that led back up to ground level. She looked back and saw that the one about to stab her had a double-bladed axe embedded in his chest.

She sat up and crawled over to a nearby table and took cover beneath it. She watched as the crew of Angel Investigations went about saving her life: Cordelia, Gunn, Wesley and Angel.

888

Three of the demons took the back way out and emerged in a night-time alley. There they were confronted by Lindsey, who had a broadsword in one hand, a small axe in the other and a pitiless look on his face. This time the three of them decided to face the lone human rather than flee, and roared as they advanced.

Lindsey sidestepped the first and buried the axe into the base of its spine. It was too deep to pull out quickly so he let it fall with the beast as he stepped forward to kick the second in the chest and take a swipe at the third. His sword missed as the demon ducked but the second staggered backward a few steps from the kick. The one he'd missed tried to swipe at Lindsey with its clawed hand and he ducked underneath it and while he was behind it he chopped its head off.

The final demon realised how dangerous Lindsey was and tried to run, but Lindsey simply threw the sword so that it buried deep into the demon's back. As it groaned and struggled on the ground in its death throes Lindsey twisted the sword out and stabbed it again in the heart to permanently silence it.

He went about retrieving and cleaning his weapons as he listened to how the fighting was progressing indoors. No humans were screaming so he figured that they were doing okay. Then he thought he heard the sound of footsteps coming toward him.

"Who's there?" he asked.

Eve stepped under the streetlight so she could be seen. "It's just me. Were you having fun?"

Lindsey was silent for a moment, obviously not sure of what to say. Then he smiled. "You're back."

"Obviously," Eve replied with a smile. She looked toward the old building. "Sounds like a party in there," she commented.

"What are you doing here?" Lindsey asked.

"I came to check on you guys; see how you're doing. Why, aren't you happy to see me?"

"I wouldn't say that," he replied. "You probably want to know how Eve is doing, right?"

Eve nodded, her expression controlled and blank.

"I'm not sure where she is right now. A couple of weeks ago I went to see an empath who warned me she was up to something. She and my firm hired someone to make Cordelia's visions hurt her even more, but when we confronted them Eve went into hiding. She's dangerous, Erica, and you were right; she did meet up with powerful allies. The next time we catch up to her, you'll either have to take her back with you or we're going to have to kill her."

Eve sighed as though thinking about her decision. "Well, while I'm here I'll see what I can do about her. But tell me more about how you're getting along with Angel and his little gang. What have they been up to?"

Lindsey glanced around the alley at the demon bodies. "Let me clean this up a little and then I'll take you somewhere we can talk."

888

"Hey," Gunn said, as they all came out of the building and walked to the car. He was looking down the street where Lindsey had parked his orange truck. "Isn't that the crazy chick he made us rescue one time?"

The others followed his gaze. "Yeah, I guess so," Cordelia answered him. "So?"

"Nothing really, it's just that he said she wouldn't be coming back."

Cordelia shrugged. Angel popped the trunk of his car so they could pile weapons in the back. Heaven knew what would happen if they ever got pulled over and searched by a cop. Wesley helped the girl into the back seat. She was shaken up but physically fine.

"He said she was from a different dimension," Wesley commented, "so if she's here then perhaps something is up. Something important." He looked back at Angel. "Maybe you should call him and ask him if there's inter-dimensional work to be done."

"Or it could just be a social call," Cordelia suggested as though it were obvious, as she sat beside the girl. "Then it's none of our business."

"Remind me;" Angel said, as he started the car, "why do we keep inviting him to these fights even though he won't take orders and rarely even reports back to the office."

"Cos he kicks a lotta demon ass," Gunn said as they pulled away from the curb.

"And because you like to know what he's up to." Wesley added.

"You hate that he's almost as strong as you," Cordelia put in.

"But I've got a lot more experience," Angel defended himself. "He knows better than to really take me on."

"Existing for two hundred years will do that." Wesley said. "Besides, he occasionally does the inviting himself, when he discovers demon activity. We should really accept by now that he's on our side, however rebellious he may be."

"Whatever," Angel said, "I'm still going to call him, and make him tell me what's up."

"In the morning," Cordelia cautioned.

888

Lindsey took Eve to an all-night diner to discuss the happenings of Angel Investigations and Wolfram and Hart. She was a little surprised when he then drove her to the hotel where Angel was based.

"You can stay here tonight," he told her.

"Don't you have a place of your own?" she asked.

"Yeah, but it'd be a little awkward if you came there, you know I'd have to ask all of my other girlfriends to leave…"

Eve hit him lightly on the arm. "Be serious."

Lindsey chuckled. "No, I've got a friend staying over at the moment. A guy-friend; I promise. You can meet him tomorrow, but he's a little paranoid, so I have to be back tonight and let him know you're coming."

"Why's he paranoid?" Eve asked.

"Someone tried to kill him."

888

Darla was walking the streets with a dreamlike expression on her face. She was waiting for the sun to come up; to prove that she wasn't an ordinary vampire anymore. She wandered back to the docks and looked down at the water, moving to where she could easily reach out and touch it. She pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and re-read what she was supposed to do.

She knelt, concentrated, and dipped her fingers in. She was murmuring something under her breath. The water around her hand trembled a little. She grinned and opened her eyes.

888

A few men from Wolfram and Hart had been left to watch Erica. She wasn't allowed water, so they gave her juicy fruit like oranges and apples so she wouldn't get too thirsty. Other than that they left her alone.

After a while the pain in her hands simply became a distraction in the background. It never intensified or lessened, so she was able to ignore it. Erica pulled off her jacket, though she couldn't help staining it as she did so, and folded it up like a pillow. Eventually she drifted off to sleep, despite the discomfort. She had one more idea; one more hope.

888

Lindsey opened the door of his apartment to see Lorne on the couch watching TV. "Nice day, pumpkin?" the demon joked.

"Interesting," Lindsey replied, while going to a large wooden chest and putting his weapons inside. "Remember that girl I told you about? Erica?"

"The one that got you to quit Wolfram and Hart."

"She's back," Lindsey said as he went to get a beer from the fridge.

"You sound less than thrilled," Lorne said.

Lindsey shook his head. "Confused. You read auras, right?"

"Mmm, hmm," Lorne nodded.

"I used to be able to sense hers. I couldn't tonight. It's bothering me."

"Well, bring her to see me in the morning. It's probably nothing but unresolved issues coming between you, so my advice is to get some sleep, and things will get clearer."

888

All the barriers were down. He entered the dream world easily. "You here?" he called out. He felt someone answer. Someone came up behind him and as he turned he was hugged by Erica. She looked tired, and even a little blurred around the edges.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"I'm here in your realm," she told him.

"I know, I saw you a while ago. We talked." Lindsey shook his head, wondering if she could be joking.

"No we didn't. I'm trapped. I think your old firm brought me here. I've been in a pit since I got here and there's some ritual going on." She said, showing him the blood on her hands.

Lindsey took her hands in his and looked at her wounds. "Then who was I talking to?"

"I don't know, but someone is trying to trick you. What did you tell them?"

"A bunch of stuff about how Angel's business operates nowadays. Nothing that the firm couldn't guess on their own, though." He let go and looked at her face. "Where are you? I'll get you out."

"I don't know. Some warehouse. I thought I heard water nearby. I'm being guarded, but not by many. I'm not sure if they're human. There was a woman here earlier too, but I don't think she was human. A blonde vampire I think."

"Anything else?" Lindsey asked.

"Yeah," Erica half-closed her eyes and they were standing in the pit together. "That's the symbol down there," she looked down at their feet. They were standing on several circles all linked together like a jumbled up chain and in each circle was one of two symbols.

Lindsey knelt down and pointed to one. "I recognise that one. It's used to siphon energy from someone."

"You told me you destroyed all the books you found with anything about me in it," Erica said.

"I'm cut off from the firm now, and they've still got their own resources. Who knows what they've found since I've left – or who they found that knew something. I'll ask Wesley about the rest of the symbol when I wake up. Show me the woman."

Erica looked up at the edge of the pit and showed him what she'd seen.

"It's Darla," he told her. "She's the vampire that made Angel."

"I read about her from the Watcher's Diaries," Erica said. "Angel killed her after he got his soul."

"We brought her back from hell." Lindsey explained. Erica silently looked down at his new hand. "She's ambitious; she used to be the favourite of the vampire king who made her."

"And if she drinks my blood? Takes my energy?" Erica asked.

"This could get really bad. All I took was some strength and speed. But it looks like they're trying to take more than that."

"The Blood of the Ancients," Erica said quietly. She met his eyes again. "You need to get back and warn everyone. If she figures out which portals to open and how to do it she could have a demon army in your dimension very soon. And you need to figure out who this impostor is."

"I think I know," Lindsey said. "She went missing a while ago, but what better way to hide from us than right under our noses."

"Eve," Erica said, her expression hardening. "Is she where you are now?"

"No," Lindsey answered. "I left her with Angel at the hotel. I've got a demon ally hiding at my place that Eve tried to have killed. I figured he'd be wary if I brought someone home unexpectedly and wanted a chance to give him warning."

"Wherever she is, she'll be causing trouble and learning as many secrets as she can," Erica said. "You need to get back and watch her, and warn the others. Go."

"Will you be okay?" Lindsey asked.

"If they were treating me that badly, do you think I'd be able to sleep?" Erica asked, trying to smile. "You can only help me once you wake up, now go!"

She shut him out, locking the barriers back in place, but she stayed where she was for a moment. "It is my will to be healed," she whispered, and looked at her hands. Nothing. It was worth a try. She slipped into a normal dream so that she could rest.

888


	8. Chapter 8

_AN: I wanted to put more in here, but didn't want to keep anyone waiting, as I've been finding it hard to write consistently lately._

**Chapter 8**

"Excuse me," Wesley asked, "but what are you doing in here?" It was early morning and he had come across Eve amidst the ancient texts and volumes in the library at their agency.

"Oh, sorry," Eve said, managing to look embarrassed. "I was just waiting for Angel to wake up."

"Does he know you're here?" Wesley asked.

"Lindsey dropped me off here last night and spoke to Angel before he left," Eve replied.

"I see," Wesley said. "Well are you after anything in particular?"

"Oh, just passing the time, really," Eve said. "But could you do me a favour and phone the rest of your colleagues? I've heard of a prophecy that is supposed to come about today, and I'll need all of your help to stop it. It's why I came here."

"Then perhaps we should wake Angel now?"

"We have some time," Eve interrupted, "it won't happen until midday. In any case, it will be out in the open in sunlight, and he won't be able to help us fight."

"Oh," Wesley said, as if he were disappointed not to be off at once. "Well, perhaps you wouldn't mind telling me any details that you've heard."

Eve looked hesitant. "Well, are you familiar with Ojai?" She continued before he could answer. "A demon summoner is going to be performing a ritual in the lake there. He'll have a talisman that I need to keep the Hell dimensions from leaking into this dimension. We can't let him get away, but if we kill him too soon and he drops the talisman in the lake, I'm not going to be able to prevent a mass-scale invasion. I'll need your expertise in mysticism to keep him from escaping to another dimension once he realises we're there. We'll also need some strong fighters with us in case he brings any followers with him."

"Would you happen to know the summoner's name?" Wesley asked her. Eve shook her head. "Then what about the name of the talisman?"

"As far as we know, it's been nameless since it's creation."

"That's unfortunate." Wesley admitted. "I'd hoped that with some research we could be better prepared."

"You can still research binding spells to keep him from casting spells or getting away," Eve suggested.

"What if it opens a portal?"

"You'll have to leave that to me. The types of dimensions he's likely to link to… a mortal wouldn't survive trying to close a portal like that unless it was someone like me," Eve lied, giving just the right amount of hesitation and concern to her performance.

"Then I'll contact the others and let them know where we'll need to be today," Wesley said. Eve just nodded as if he'd needed her consent.

888

Lilah was on her cell phone again. "Are you ready? … No, we're not going after Angel yet, but if we can strip him of his allies then he'll lose their humanizing influence. He'll be more likely to play the part _we_ want him to play in the Apocalypse. I explained this to you already, didn't I? Anyway, we need to be sure you've got the hang of your new ability before we use it to hasten the Big Day… I'm glad you're enjoying the sunshine, Darla, but keep a low profile until we've got them trapped."

888

"I feel like I'm being blocked." Cordelia complained. "Like the Powers _want_ me to see something but it's out of reach."

"Come here sweetheart," Lorne told her, as Lindsey watched quietly from the couch. "Seems like your aura does need a cleansing," Lorne admitted after she'd hummed a few notes of an old song.

The phone rang and Lindsey picked it up. The other two went quiet to listen.

"Hey Wes," he said. "Is she still there? … Good; try not to lose her but don't let her get suspicious… Ojai?… There's probably some truth in that, especially if there's a talisman she wants. We can't just walk into a trap, though. … The real one is still missing. Cordelia can't get a vision and Lorne can't get a clear reading, but Gunn has his people on it. They'll let me know if and when they track her down, and I've got all the ingredients that you told me about to undo the spell." He glanced at a bag that was sitting on his table.

888

The dimensional tears were getting worse, and Myrna pursed her lips in a gesture of disapproval as she tried once again to sense the extent of the damage. She'd had the feelings of wrongness and unease for several months now, and everywhere she'd tried to fix it had only resulted in temporary and incomplete healings. It felt - impossible as it might seem - that the walls hadn't been whole to begin with.

Whoever that anonymous caller was, they'd been right about this place holding a recent tear in reality. Although… this one felt as though someone had summoned it. Who would want to risk their entire dimension collapsing in on itself? Only the Old Ones would survive, and if they were freed to wreak havoc between the realms … She had to try another healing, even if it was only temporary.

She adjusted her cloak and pushed a strand of blue hair out of her eyes before she put protective goggles on.

She thought she heard something, and turned around with horror as she sensed an Undead presence out in the daylight.

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Almost an hour later…

There were demons patrolling the streets nearby, but only humans were within the warehouse.

A few of the guards were playing a card game and one of them looked up in disgust as their captive began another verse of "this is the song that never ends…"

"Can't we gag her?" he muttered.

"Ignore it," one of his co-workers cautioned. "She'll get tired of it eventually, and we've only got another half hour until the next shift. Next time we'll bring a radio."

"If she gets hurt on our watch we'll get fired … or worse," another guard pointed out. "Do you really want to go down there and risk her fighting back, or even interfering with the magic crap they've got in there?"

The first guard muttered incoherently to himself and looked back at his cards.

None of them noticed the mist that crept along the ground, that curled beneath their table and almost invisibly stretched to every corner of the room. Someone whispered powerful words nearby, and everyone immediately slumped over; fast asleep.

Lindsey drove the black convertible into the warehouse and once they were out of the sunlight Angel came out of the backseat and Cordelia jumped out of the passenger seat. Angel and Lindsey ran over to the pit, and together they wrenched off the padlock and opened it up. Lindsey jumped down and pulled a brown pouch out of his pocket. He pulled a pinch of pink powder out and softly blew some into Erica's face. She woke up with a start.

"I'm here," Lindsey said, catching her hand when she reflexively tried to shove him back. She focussed on him and nodded. "Let's go," he said, pulling her to her feet. Cordelia handed down her bag and Lindsey set out the charms around the symbol. Above them, Cordelia read out the words from a piece of paper and Erica stopped bleeding as the symbol faded.

"Where's Eve?" she asked.

"Probably leading the rest of us into a trap," Angel said, reaching down his hand for her. Lindsey gave her a boost so she could climb up.

"And that vampire, Darla?"

"She's probably there setting up the trap."

"A mirror?" Erica asked them. Cordelia handed her a compact powder case with a mirror on the inside.

"Right now she has the power of the Ancients," Erica said to Angel, as Lindsey silently handed her a bottle of water. "If you want to beat her you should take some blood too." She pointed to the basin that was visible in the next room.

"Are you sure?" Angel asked her.

"It's not like I can take it back now, and it would keep anyone else from getting it," Erica replied with a shrug. "You have my permission to put it to good use. They kept talking about keeping me long-term, so I'd say the effects are only temporary." She knelt on the ground to work on her mirror.

"You studied this," Angel said to Lindsey, "what can I expect?"

"Increased strength, limited portal and reality sense as well as ability to function like a living being," Lindsey replied.

"Meaning?" Cordelia asked.

"Breathing, a pulse, and resistance to sunlight."

888

Gunn, Wesley and Eve were almost in Ojai, with a bag of weapons and magic ingredients in the back of the truck.

Eve had been told that Cordelia and Lindsey would meet them there, once Lindsey picked Cordelia up from some meeting. Eve guessed that it was probably an acting audition or something equally frivolous. She was confident that the Seer wouldn't have picked up on any of their plans, thanks to the blocking spells that Wolfram and Hart's shamans and psychics had been setting up these past few weeks.

She scanned the area to make sure Darla hadn't gotten premature on them and started opening portals already. She pointed out the lake and Gunn pulled up around the back of a house so that they might be able to approach unseen. They got out of the truck and peered around.

They saw a robed figure sitting on the dock over the lake. "Is that the demon?" Wesley asked. Eve nodded, and went forward to lead them around the house. Wesley pulled out a tazer and zapped her with it. The two men covered her with a blanket, roped it up and put her in the back of the truck.

"Think they're in place yet," Wesley said quietly to Gunn.

"If we're talking about a demon invasion," Gunn replied, "then we'd better hope so."

Wesley looked at his watch. "We'll have to move soon, whether the others get here in time or not."

"You still so sure Eve was bluffing about you not being able to close the portals?" Gunn asked. Wesley didn't answer; he just grimly grabbed his bag.

Gunn looked back over at the robed figure. "It's moving a little, but I can't tell what it's doing."

"Look at the lake," Wesley said. The water was changing colour, and it sloshed about as something came up from the surface.

"Here we go," Gunn said.

The first of the demons was humanoid with greenish-brown skin, a beak-like face with horns all over it, including two long ones that stretched forward from it's wrists like bony curved knives. As another one just like it surfaced, Wesley moved forward, but almost jumped out of his skin when he heard his cell phone.

He listened for about ten seconds and then shoved the phone back in his pocket. "We have to save that Summoner, it's not a demon," he said hurriedly, as he ran for the dock. Gunn followed more slowly as he raised a crossbow and took aim at the demon who advanced menacingly toward the robed figure. It took a bolt in the chest as it knocked the person back, revealing Myrna, who was tied up in place and gagged.

Nearby, more portals were being started as Darla walked a wide circle around the lake.

888


	9. Help

**AN**: In case you didn't recognise her, I used Mistress Myrna from ANGEL season 3

**Chapter 9: **Help

Contact with the Guardian had been made. Hegira had been warned.

888

Myrna struggled as a many-clawed hand raised up above her. The bite she already had on her neck from Darla was raw and painful, and it began to bleed again as her struggles tore it open. The talisman around her neck kept her from teleporting as she usually did, and she was helpless to move.

Someone behind her grabbed a handful of her cloak and used it to yank her backward, out of reach. Another crossbow bolt flew and hit its target, but more were coming. She could feel all of the newest dimensional tears spreading like a sickness.

She was rolled over on her side so that Wesley could get at the ropes on her hands and feet. She looked back and saw the two men, and she also saw the flare they'd set off as they ran. She heard conflict further around them, as the human members of Gunn's old crew met up with the growing demon invasion. A shed nearby shook as someone or something was thrown onto it. A few cars were racing around, trying to ram into the demons. Most of them were outfitted with long, sharpened planks of wood.

"Can you help us stop this?" Wesley asked her as they retreated. He showed her the ingredients he had with him. She shook her head, out of breath with fright.

"I'm not a fighter," she said quickly. "And this damn necklace keeps me from going anywhere or fixing anything. I can't take it off by myself."

Wesley tried to touch it and it tightened around Myrna's neck. "Who can take it off?" he asked as it slowly released again.

"Someone else who works with dimensions, or someone with great psychic energy," she answered as they took cover behind a shed. Gunn stood out in front, using up his last half-dozen bolts.

"Hopefully we'll have a Realm Guardian on her way by now," Wesley told her.

"That'll do it," Myrna said with a short nod.

"We just have to hold out until then," Gunn commented, throwing the empty crossbow into the back of the truck and pulling out his axe.

"There's a vampire out here," Myrna told them, "walking the daylight and causing all of these portal breaches. If we stop her we can at least prevent more of them opening."

"Yes" said another voice as Gunn was thrown aside. "But how are you mortals going to stop me?" Darla asked with a sneer.

Myrna ran to the other side of Gunn's truck as Wesley pulled out a cross from his bag. Gunn was winded but conscious as Myrna helped him sit up. Darla laughed and grabbed Wesley's hand. She brought the cross to her face with an arrogant grin and rubbed it against her cheek. "I expected you to do more than just rely on your pathetic faith," she said. Then she used her other hand to snap the cross in two. She reduced it to splinters and dropped them at Wesley's feet as he backed away.

Gunn got up and swung the axe at her head. She swatted it aside and then had to turn back to Wesley as he tried to stake her while her back was turned. She managed to grab Wesley's wrist and threw him into Gunn. Both men stumbled to the ground.

Another portal opened close by, but this time no demons came through. Several staffs dropped out onto the ground. Staffs that were tipped with gold and inscribed with the Guardians' Text.

Myrna recognised what they were and scrambled over to the nearest one. An approaching hellhound snarled and rushed at her. She held the staff in front of her and as the hellhound hit the end it vanished. She turned and faced Darla, who immediately shrank back with obvious confusion.

As Myrna made her back off from the two men they heard an engine roar. Darla tried to move aside but was slammed into the shed as Angel's convertible hit her.

Everyone got out of the car, and everyone was brandishing some kind of weapon.

"Zap her," Gunn said to Myrna as he got back to his feet.

Myrna shook her head and muttered, "Not yet."

Darla pushed herself out and tried to back away as Angel approached her. Erica went up to Myrna and took off the talisman. She reversed it and put it back on Myrna, so that now her abilities were increased rather than depleted. "Go," she said to Myrna. "He'll protect you," she gestured at Lindsey, who picked up another staff. Myrna grabbed the ingredients out of Wesley's bag and headed to the nearest portal to reverse the damage.

Gunn grabbed another staff and went to stand by Angel, who was trading blows with Darla. "Don't," Erica told Gunn, who was about to hit at Darla, "or she'll just manage to find her way out again. You should help the others out there. Where's Eve?"

"Over here," Wesley answered, standing by the truck. Erica grabbed the last two staffs and handed one to Cordelia and kept hold of one herself.

"If there's nowhere else I can send you where you won't be a bane…" she said quietly, as Wesley pulled the blanket off of Eve's face. "These work best on the soulless," she said to Cordelia. "So I need your help." Eve was just waking up as Erica and Cordelia touched her with the staffs. She was more slow to disappear than a demon, but she did.

888

"Where am I?" Eve whispered, mostly to herself. She was wearing her own face again. The air warmed in response to her voice and she looked around, trying to see through the haze. Cloud-like mist swirled up in front of her face, and she thought she could smell sulphur and damp earth. She was barefoot and wearing a tunic that looked like a plain potato sack with holes for her arms and head and that reached to her knees. She started walking, her arms out in front of her, and she thought she felt something brush past her. She reached out to grab it but there was nothing there. She would never touch anything real again.

888

Darla was able to grab the fallen stake and tried to kill Angel. As he rolled out of the way he grabbed Gunn's fallen axe and before she could retreat he managed to slice through her arm. Darla screamed. Angel hesitated for only a moment, but as she turned to run away he beheaded her. She didn't disintegrate, so Wesley came forward to burn the remains.

Erica left with Cordelia and Gunn to close down more portals. When Wesley was done with the body he got back in Gunn's truck to help the other humans take down demons, and Angel went hunting on his own.

By now there were many casualties on both sides, including a nearby farming family whose house had been set upon by a giant fire-breathing worm. It took the better part of the afternoon to track down the last of the escapees.

888

Myrna could sense anything that had recently been through a portal, and when the survivors all gathered back at the lakeside she confirmed that they were finished.

Erica sent the staffs back to Hegira, and then got to work healing as many survivors as she could, including the few civilians that they'd managed to save. By now she needed only to get close to the person and hold her hand out over the wound. She'd been getting better at calling it without the real flames, and was stronger for every time she practiced, but after the twelfth person in a row she sagged as the nausea returned. Lindsey was immediately at her side and he put an arm around her to support her.

"The rest will live without it," he told her. "You should get back to your realm," he said with some reluctance.

Erica hung her head. "I know what it feels like when the walls between dimensions are damaged. If I leave this dimension again without beginning the healing then both our worlds will suffer for it."

"What do you have to do?" he asked. Whatever it was, it obviously made her upset.

"I have to talk to Myrna," she said, glancing at the nearest expert on dimensions, "alone."

He hesitated, but if it was something she felt she had to do… "Sure," he replied. "But… don't leave before you say goodbye this time."

888

"You know those repairs are only temporary," Myrna said as Erica approached her.

"I know," Erica replied. "Can we talk?"

"Sure kiddo," Myrna said, and gestured for Erica to walk alongside her.

"The priests at Hegira sent me a message to say you were the best person to help me here," Erica said once they'd gotten out of hearing distance. Myrna nodded, waiting for her to continue. "This realm is a mistake."

"I had that feeling," Myrna replied. "Yours?"

Erica nodded. "My first time through a portal."

"Yeah, I heard they were going to pick one of the Potential Slayers for the job. Better you than me."

"Why?" Erica asked.

"Well, I am mortal like they wanted, and I do know a lot about fixing problems with dimensions, but I'm not a fighter. I'm not a big fan of danger either, so this gig just wouldn't have suited me." Myrna said matter-of-factly, after glancing at Erica's scar. She paused and looked back at her. "So now I know why there was such a big power drain a few months back. Everyone remotely psychic here felt it – we all knew the Higher Powers were up to something."

"So what do I have to do?" Erica asked.

"Get yourself to the Midrealm."

"I haven't been there before," Erica said.

"I heard you were still unTested," Myrna said with an understanding expression. "When you were chosen, you would have seen it in your mind. It's usually a white place with a lot of water on the ground. For now you'll need a portal to get there like anywhere else, but after the tests you should be able to just will yourself there. When you get there, find the pool that represents your reality and the near identical one you've made. Connect the two pools by drawing the shadow dimension around the other one and let them seep together slowly. Both realities will experience tremors for a few minutes. You'll have to wait while they merge, because if you bring them crashing together too fast then you may cause explosions. At worst you could destroy both of them. But you have to do this soon. The longer the shadow reality remains, the more each doubled being within both realms will become less of themselves. Each being and their double will siphon energy from each other and begin to fade, so you have to save them. Not only that, but while it exists it draws energy from you and every other being who works between realms."

"So, I'm not really killing anyone?" Erica said with some relief.

"No, you're simply realigning their misplaced energies back where they belong."

"What about someone who doesn't have a double?" Erica asked.

"You mean those who are dead in one of the realities? Their souls and minds will be released to whatever afterlife they'd been drawn from. You can't stop it, and if you try to keep them alive there will be consequences for you and them."

"But Lindsey was supposed to be my Protector," Erica pointed out.

Myrna gave her an odd look. "I thought I could sense something of you in him." She shrugged. "Take him with you to the Midrealm. You'll have to leave him there until your tests, but he'll survive if he's really your Protector, because he'll already have a part of you in him."

"No one else can survive the Midrealm?" Erica asked.

"Only briefly, and you must be present to protect their existence." Myrna explained. She glanced around as if she could see something in the air. "You've probably left this as long as you can. Much longer and everyone in both realms will start to get weaker."

Erica gave a weak smile and hoped that she was ready.

888

They returned to the others and Erica drew Lindsey aside. "So is this goodbye again?" Lindsey asked, still holding onto her hand.

"No," Erica said with the beginnings of a smile. "You're coming with me."


	10. Restoration

**Chapter 10:** Restoration

888

After the previous battle it was easier than they'd thought for Erica and Lindsey to follow Myrna's instructions to heal both realms. The trip through the portal with Lindsey had been uneventful, and although it was a little hard to breathe in the Midrealm, both of them were able to survive.

Erica found the two pools, joined them together with the same mantra she used to creqate portals, and they waited out the tremors until there was one single pool representing the Earth realm in front of them. All was quiet as Erica thought about what to do next. For the moment she didn't want to meet Lindsey's eyes; didn't want to believe that they could have a future.

She had to leave Lindsey here until after the Tests – whatever they were. Neither of them knew how long that might be. But at least he would live. She could hardly believe it after all this time trying to forget about him.

Now Erica knew why she had tried to keep Spike at arm's length the past few months. They'd grow closer and then she would pull away. She'd been treating him like the rebound guy, even though at the time she'd thought there was no future with Lindsey. Coincidentally, she and Spike were currently in an 'off' period. So she and Lindsey... they were free.

Erica paused in her reflections when there was a shift in the atmosphere. There was a breath of cool, fresh air, then they could see words forming in midair in the Guardian's Text. 'Accept the Life', it said. Erica felt nauseous again, and then fell gently to the ground as a bright patch of mist engulfed her and lowered her slowly as if it didn't want her hurt. She lay unconscious on the ground.

Lindsey knelt at her side as the glow faded. He felt her pulse and checked her breathing, which was slow and even as though she were asleep. He glanced back at the Text and discovered that he understood it. "The life has been returned to the Vessel. She will understand when she wakes." Once he'd read it, the text faded out again.

He cradled her head in his lap and waited for her to wake up. He was trusting the Midrealm, and trusting that she would be all right. He looked around at what Erica had told him would be his home for a little while. Not much to look at. Hopefully he wouldn't go berserk with boredom while she lived her life. Lived it out there, without him. He gently kissed her forehead, and gave her a look that was a mixture of self-pity and resignation.

When Erica finally did wake up, she very quickly had an embarrassed look on her face.

"What is it?" he asked gently, stroking her hair.

"Do... do you remember the night you took me away from Wolfram and Hart?" she asked.

"Uh huh." They had hidden in an abandoned building and had fought off a small group of vampires. It had also been the night he'd taken Slayer energy from her.

Erica hesitated. "We weren't exactly careful," she said, "and we did something." She took another deep breath to prepare herself, and shifted so that she was leaning back on her elbows to look up at him. "The Oracles took care of it for a while until it was ready to exist, but now that the Shadow reality is gone I'll have to stay here … until ... until the baby is born."

Lindsey's look of surprise was priceless.

"Talk to me," Erica pleaded as she sat up, "are you mad, scared, happy… comatose? Give me something."

"I'm still working through surprise here," Lindsey admitted. "So ... What about you?"

"A little scared," Erica said. "I mean, the kid of a Guardian and Protector. This kid's future is going to be interesting, to say the least."

"It's alright." Lindsey told her as he took her hand. "At least now I know you're sticking around for a while."

Erica nodded, still guaging his reaction as he absorbed the news. "We're not just stuck here though. We can go to the Guardian's Sanctuary as well, because it's a part of this place."

"The place we dreamt about?" Lindsey asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Okay then," Lindsey said, while pulling her to her feet. He looked at their blood-stained clothes. "I don't know about you, but I feel like going swimming."

Erica smiled. He took the news better than she'd thought.

**888**

**AN: **Sorry this bit was so short; it was meant to go on the end of the last chapter. Instead I'll combine and a little of what was meant to be next chapter. So how did I go with the baby announcement – not everybody can write that sort of thing well. Oh, and I did hint that this was coming _way_ back in 'The blood of the Ancients', just after she'd spoken with the Oracles. Did anyone guess?

888

**Chapter 10 (continued):** Some time later…

Cordelia came into the kitchen of their apartment as Lawson sat down at the table with his food. It was evening and they'd come home tired after work. Cordelia had gone into Erica's bedroom and when she came out only a few seconds later she handed Lawson a note.

"She's been here," she said to him, and crossed her arms. "It says, 'I'm fine; don't expect me back too soon,'. The Watcher's journals that were on her desk are missing too."

"So wherever she is," Lawson concluded, "at least she's studying."

"That's not remotely funny," Cordelia told him. "It's been nearly a week with no sign of her and that's all she sends us. This note could have been left here days ago for all we know."

"I'm worried too," Lawson admitted, "but she's obviously doing some training by herself, or with those Hegira priests. Maybe she's realised that she's got those Trials ahead of her; I mean, with all the hints we've been trying to give her about being able to depend on herself and not rely on us for protection. It's a good thing if she's trying to prepare herself."

"I don't know," Cordelia said with a little shake of her head, "I've got a really bad feeling that something's coming."

"If she _is_ training in her Sanctuary, then nothing can get to her," Lawson reasoned. "Except the Higher Powers, and you told us that she'd have at least a year to prepare, and that means she's got at least six months to go. Probably more."

"A year by whose standards?" Cordelia pointed out. "She could be spending a lot more days there than are passing here."

"Still," Lawson said, "do you think she'd really stay there for that many months without at least coming back and visiting us?"

"I don't know," Cordelia said, "were she and Spike fighting again?"

Lawson grimaced. "She wouldn't be playing with dimensions just to give him the silent treatment, would she?"

888

"Whau!" Lindsey grunted as he had the breath knocked out of him. He was flat out on the mat-like ground but he rolled out of the way before Erica could get an arm lock on him. They were both on their feet in the next second and circling each other warily. They were both wearing loose casual clothing and sneakers. Erica's hair, which had grown a few inches, was tied back in a ponytail. Her scar had faded to a point where it was almost invisible; evidence of her improved self-healing abilities.

Their current environment was a labyrinthine network of caves and hidden passageways that were lit by numerous cracks in the ceiling and occasional burning torches, leaving lots of shadows to hide and confuse each other with.

It seemed that Erica didn't need to control every aspect anymore – the Sanctuary could take samples of both of their memories and recreate a random representation of them, so that both of them were forced to take note of their surroundings as they fought so they wouldn't bump into walls or trip over. There were a few crevasses as well to watch out for, although if they fell into one they'd find it was only a deceptive metre deep. There were even a few bat, rat, spider and snake Shadows around the place for a little more realism.

Erica, who was using Midrealm-enhanced Slayer ability so the fight was more even, jumped to kick at Lindsey's head. He ducked under the move and swept her foot out from under her as she landed. Before he could get a hold on her she got her feet between them, grabbed his arms and kicked him off of her. He landed easily on his feet as she flipped to hers.

"After five years I think I know all your moves, Slayer," he taunted her as they circled again.

"Nearly six," she corrected. "Alex was five last month." She let him back her toward a wall and as he punched she twisted to the side, grabbed his arm and made him hit the wall. She was now on the inside of his arm so she thrust an elbow back toward his face, which he blocked, and then she looped the same arm around his neck and pulled him toward her to make him bend over while she drove her knee up into his midsection.

When she tried to make a headlock he dropped to his knees and rolled over to pull her off balance. The momentum pulled her over the top of him to land on his other side.

There was a sound of a bell echoing through the caverns and they stopped. "Time to go get Alex," Lindsey said with a sigh. Any pain or injuries they'd gotten during the fight had already vanished. They were both still lying on the ground.

"I'm worried about him," Erica said softly as they caught their breath. Slowly their environment faded to look like the inside of a large house. They were in a lounge room with lots of multi-coloured couches, fluorescent green carpets and a purple ceiling. So much for letting a five-year old boy decorate the room. There was no TV or phone, just books on the shelves and a few lamps.

"Why? The whole reason we send him to the priests every day is to make sure he can't open portals on his own. Draining from him a little every day keeps him safe; we talked about this."

"It's not that. He's a growing kid, and he doesn't get to spend time with any other kids," Erica said. "He's too smart to think the Shadow friends I made for him last year are real, and besides, I probably don't know how to make them act real enough. I'm certainly not a kid anymore."

Lindsey nodded as he sat up. "I was talking to Tay the other day. You said he was the only priest not treating you like a kid, right?"

"Yeah," she replied.

"Well anyway, you know Alex doesn't have to stay with us. His life isn't bound to the Midrealm like mine is. You could always take him back to LA with you."

"After knowing this place all his life, do you think he's ready for the real world?" Erica asked. "He can't get hurt while he's here. There's no traffic, no criminals, and no real monsters." She looked back at him. "Besides, for how long? We'd both miss you, and I'm not leaving you stuck here alone until that Test thing happens."

"I'm not suggesting anything long-term. Just do visits like we do with Alex and Hegira."

She gave him a short kiss on the cheek before getting up to make the portal to bring back their son. "I'll think about it, then we'll talk to Alex."

888

AN: As I have already mentioned, I don't write romance very well, so I'm also doubtful about my 'happy family' scenarios. That's why I tried to keep up the pace of the chapter by keeping action in it and using conversation to explain the years we skipped, rather than having one big long chunk of family stuff. I might do a few flashbacks later. If there's something in particular you want to suggest, please go ahead with a review.


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